Laughlin Riverboat Tour:

Recently, Cary and I, along with my brother and sister-in-law, took a charter trip to Laughlin, Nevada.  Leaving the cold and a bit of snow at home, we enjoyed weather in the high 90's and had a very nice little vacation.

On one of the days, we took the one hour boat tour of the waterfront on the Colorado River which divides Arizona and Nevada.  It was only $10 per person (too bad that we didn't notice our 2 for 1 coupons until the very last morning that we were there!) There is also a three hour tour which takes you all the way down to Lake Havasu (one hour there, one hour to look around and one hour back).  

Water taxi's do a brisk business bringing folks across the river and taking them to other casinos.  The cost of those are very reasonable, at $4.00 a ride or $15.00 for an all day pass. 

The picture above is of the parking lot across the river, where people from Bullhead City, Arizona can park there cars and taxi to The Riverside Casino (that is where we were staying).

This is the boat that we toured the river on.  It was very nice and clean, and the captain and the crew were just wonderful.  It was air conditioned in the cabin, and there was a little bar.  We sat up on the top deck.

Me and my Sis.

My traveling companions, my brother and Cary ...

... Cary and Maria.

The tour went up to the bridge that Don Laughlin had built with his own money.  It took over 4 years to get the permits, but only 4.5 months to complete.  Prior to the bridge being built, you had to cross the river 11 miles downstream, which wasn't very convenient to those staying and working at the casinos.

Upstream from the bridge is Parker Dam.  The river level was too high for our boat to sneak underneath when we were there, but sometimes that is an option.

On the Laughlin side of the bridge is a beautiful park and a trailhead for bicycles and horseback riding.

The Colorado River is clear and clean, and provides drinking water all the way to Southern California.  At Laughlin, it isn't very deep; ranging between 11 and 13 feet.

Jet skiers, speed boats and canoers share the water with the tour boats and water taxis.

You can swim in the river, if you take a water taxi down to the beach at Harrahs Resort.  There are some other places across the river on the Arizona side that looked inviting for swimming, but I'm not sure if they were public beaches or not.

Casino Row and The Riverwalk: 

We stayed at The Riverside.  The Riverside was the first casino in Laughlin.  Don Lauglin bought an old eight-room motel in the late 60's out in the middle of nowhere.  He and his family lived in half of it, and he put in a few slot machines and rented out the other four rooms.  With an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner and the slots, one thing led to another and then eventually to what you see above.

Other companies soon caught the vision and built their own casinos and resorts.  Here are some of them, the ones that I could see on our little river trip:

This one is for sale!  Apparently, it is kind of dumpy inside.

Because Cary had back surgery right before we left, and it isn't super easy for my Dad to get around, we didn't explore any other casinos this time around.  I did walk next door to buy a book at The Aquarius, which is rather new and reminded me of a Las Vegas joint.

Harrah's is at the end of casino row.  We stayed there last time that we went, 7 or 8 years ago.  It is a very nice place.

This last picture is looking upriver on our way back.  I took lots of pictures of the Bullhead City side too, but this post is getting very long, so I'll save those for another time.

I'll write more about the trip soon, and I hope that you enjoyed your visit!

Hugs,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.