Off-road adventure
Arizona offers plenty to see, including a trip to the Grand Canyon
Historic Route 66 supplies a hefty dose of Americana and nostalgia, but those qualities aren’t confined to just that road. There’s more quirk and adventure when you veer off the path.
The Hualapai Indians own and control the Grand Canyon West. Sign up for a River Runner Raft tour for a view of the canyon from the bowels of the Colorado River. The trip ends with a helicopter ride to the top and a magnificent aerial sweep of the canyon.
A bumpy two-hour bus ride from Peach Springs on Route 66 along the Diamond Creek stream bed road to the bottom of the Grand Canyon preps you for what’s ahead — a five-hour bone reassembly on a 65-kilometre trip through the Colorado River rapids.
“Offered” the front of the raft, I was tossed up and slammed down, a hapless wrestler assailed by water and gravity. A rafting companion said he felt like one of Picasso’s cubist portraits, so askew was he after the course. But once through the rapids, we were treated to a twohour glide through the splendour of the Grand Canyon. That ride, the enormity of the chasm, the blue sky and the hot sun restored us to our senses. Recuperation from the body realignment came a day and many drinks later, when I could feel my shoulders finally drop back to their proper place below my chin. Sign me up again.
Lake Havasu City lies due south of where Route 66 meets California and is a testament to the frontier eccentricity that attracts a certain type to Arizona. Take chainsaw entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch: Fed up with high taxes in California, he bought up a large tract of barren desert land on the Arizona border, moved his 400 employees there and proceeded to build a city around them. A human-made canal linking the Colorado River to Thompson Bay was crowned — and filled with water — when McCulloch purchased England’s London Bridge and had it moved to Lake Havasu City and reassembled stone by numbered stone. The canal comes in handy: it’s the focal point for all kinds of water sports in the state. That’s a good thing, since Lake Havasu City is the second-hottest spot in the U.S., next to Death Valley.
If you’re crazy enough to go there midsummer, find out when Brigid Stevens bakes a batch of cookies on the dash of her PT Cruiser, which reaches 200 F (95 C) in the hot, hot heat. Locals call her Mrs. Dash.
Winter might be an obvious time to visit Arizona, trading our cold for the dry, warm winter and perennial sunshine in the state where many Canadians retire to golf, hike and sightsee. Braver souls who love a dry, hot heat will enjoy easier access to all of Arizona’s wonders at off-season discounts from around May to September.