Light Show

  Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States
Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Mom and I tried one more time to see if we can get a boat tour of Topock Gorge or the lake...no luck. The one good thing that came out of going back to the English village was that there was a tourist information center that was open. I stumbled across an interesting map of the Lighthouses of Havasu. Apparently, there is a local club responsible for erecting replicas of famous US lighthouses along the shore of Havasu Island and the mainland. Driving to the different lighthouses seemed like a good way to kill the afternoon.

Split Rock replica

Vermilian replica

Most of the lighthouses actually serve as navigational aides, so they have functioning lights and are located at points where the land juts out into the lake. There usually are no roads which lead directly to the lighthouses, so we will be going a little off-roading. Our first stop was at the replica of Split Rock...the original is located on the northern shore of Minnesota. From this vantage point, you can see that Havasu Island offers an extensive beach line where someone can find a private section within one of the numerous coves/nooks. At our next stop, Alpena (Michigan) I spotted a person enjoying the privacy with his dogs, so I did not want to disturb them to get a closer photo.

Robert Manning replica

The replica of Vermilian (Ohio) also enjoyed a nice secluded section of beach; contrary to the next replica, Robert Manning (michigan). I do not think this lighthouse serves as a navigational aide because it was located in the middle of a RV campground.

The two Quoddys

The next two, East Quoddy (New Brunswick) and West Quoddy (Maine) guarded one entrance into Bridge Channel. The other entrance was guarded by Main Buffalo (New York) and Currituck (North Carolina). Unfortunately as I was walking along London Bridge Beach, I could not spot the Currituck replica on the other side of the channel. I was able to see a lighthouse in the Lake Havasu Marina. Since it was a private marina, we could not enter, so I did not get a good look at the lighthouse to identify it. After dropping Mom off at the condo, I walked along the beach line of the resort and in the distance I was able to spot Desert Rock (Maine) providing a beacon for a little island in the lake.

Sunset over the lake

Light show along the eastern shore

Since it was getting close to sunset, I decided to drive back to Split Rock, the most western of the lighthouses, and watch the light show on the lake. Although the sunset was impressive, I thought it was prettier looking back at the Eastern shore as the final light of the day is reflected off the mountains. I can not describe the different shades of purple present in the sky.