11/30 Willow Beach, Colorado River Below Lake Mead

I am happy to be in another one of my favorite campgrounds!  This one is at Willow Beach, which is on a slope above the Colorado River, about 15 miles south of Hoover Dam, on the Arizona side of the river.  It is four miles from the main highway, so there is very little noise.  On the other side of the river is the Black Canyon Wilderness area.  The only access to the canyon and the river is the marina, but you can rent a boat and head up or down stream.  Not much current this time of year and hardly any boaters, so it is very peaceful.  The whole area is part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

The drive in from Phoenix was also gorgeous, though at 276 miles, it was a lot longer than I like to drive. 

This is part of the four mile long road into the marina and campground.  They had a pretty serious flash flood a couple of months ago, so you can see where they had to plow sand and rocks off the roadway.

No pulling off this road.  The shoulders are very soft sand and you can tell where the construction equipment has made very deep ruts.

It was beginning to get dark, so the mountains do look black.

The campground is up on a slope, so this is the view of the river from my campsite. 

This is the view looking away from the river to the hills behind.  All sites have full hookups and are on pavement.  I also found out today that there is a washer and dryer, so I am very happy.  Note the really blue sky.

Rode my bike down the hill to the marina.  Nice view upstream from the marina.

I am scheduled to take a scenic float from Hoover Dam down to this marina on Sunday.  It is very cold here (high today of 54 and low of 32 last night), so I wanted to check out the raft.  Looks nice and big, and I was assured that I would not have wet feet the whole time.  I will be wearing shorts, but lots of layers on top.

Here is one of the rental boats.

Another rental boat, but looks a little less stable.  I would love to rent a boat, but am worried about mechanical trouble.

The last three pictures were taken from the picnic area half-way to the campground.

This describes an even worse flash flood many years ago.

Best view, ever!!