Spring Trip 2009: Colorado River Valley

Part of the Spring Trip 2009 series.

The Colorado River Valley along the Arizona-California border is a part of the country that I had some difficulty in coming up with a name for. When producing our map book for this trip, I considered it part of the “Nevada Triangle”; I think the locals call it the “Mohave Valley%rdquo;—or is that “Mojave”?—but “Colorado River Valley” seems at least descriptive and lacks any confusion over the spelling.

We arrived in Blythe, California, from Yuma, Arizona, in mid-afternoon. There's not much in Blythe, but it's the only city along the route of I-10 between Phoenix and Palm Springs, so it sees its share of traffic. (I-10 here is only about 85 miles south of I-40; geographically, it should probably have been numbered I-20 rather than I-10.) From Blythe, we crossed back into Arizona to see little class-A FM run out of a house in Quartzsite, KBUX (94.3), and then headed up AZ 95 (US 95 crosses the border on I-10) to Parker and Lake Havasu City. We stopped to see the Lake Havasu AM in the quickly-fading dusk and then had dinner before continuing up Route 95 to meet I-40. We crossed the river again and stopped for airchecks in Needles, California, then headed north out of Needles back across the river to AZ 95 and Bullhead City. Following the new parkway bypass, we crossed over the river one final time coming into Laughlin, and promptly collapsed in our respective hotel rooms.

On Sunday, we got up fairly early to make the drive into Las Vegas to see an early-afternoon Las Vegas 51s game. Before heading up the hundred-mile haul from Laughlin to Vegas, we stopped at the Laughlin/Bullhead AM site, which was originally built for KLSQ (870) back when it was licensed to Laughlin; now it carries two Bullhead City-licensed AMs, KFLG (1000) and KZZZ (1490). Useless trivia: on the way up to Vegas, US 95 passes through Searchlight, Nevada, the home town of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

KJMB-FM tower

KJMB-FM studios

KBUX tower

KBUX sign

KPKR tower

KRIT tower

KWFH church

KWFH phone pole

KLPZ studios

KLPZ st/tx

KNTR tower

KZZZ/KFLG towers