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Busses by the Bridge-Lake Havasu, AZ

Event Details

Time: January 14, 2011 at 6pm to January 16, 2011 at 7pm
Location: By the London Bridge
City/Town: Lake Havasu, Arizona
Website or Map: http://www.busesbythebridge.c…
Event Type: campout
Organized By: Busses by the Bridge.com
Latest Activity: Aug 27, 2016

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Comment by John LaTorre on December 28, 2010 at 10:33pm: If anybody wants to caravan, let me know. I expect that I'll be leaving on Wednesday, staying either near Tehachapi or Barstow (depending on how much time I'm making) on Wednesday night, then camping near the site on Thursday night, so as to be at the gate early on Friday morning.

Comment by westywoman (Melissa) on December 30, 2010 at 8:54am: @John- curious as to where you stop overnight in either Tehachapi or Barstow. Is this a "truck stop", a campground or the comfort of a nice motel?

Comment by John LaTorre on December 30, 2010 at 9:46am: They'd be campgrounds. There are some commercial campgrounds in Tehachapi, although I'm pretty sure I remember some BLM land around there that had campsites (when I rolled through there last time at night, the fog was so dense that I could barely see the road, let alone a campground that I'd never been to before, so I elected to "boondock it" that time).

As for Barstow, there was a campground near there that I stayed at last year:

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/barstow/basin.html

I'd probably go there again, unless there was another campground available.

My alternative to a truck stop in Barstow would be a closed-down mall on the eastern edge of town where there are a lot of overnight stayers (safety in numbers, you know). I've stayed there before a couple of times. It's a little quieter than the truck stops, and convenient to restaurants and stores.

http://www.freecampgrounds.com/detail.aspx?id=3213

As for motels, they're easy to find in Barstow and Mojave. I've always stayed in the Motel 6 when traveling through there, as they seemed to be the cheapest of the national chains.

Comment by John LaTorre on December 30, 2010 at 4:17pm: OK, I did a little more research.

I was wrong about there being a BLM park around Tehachapi. But there are two others. One is the Tehachapi Mountain Park, run by the county and costing $14/night (with no two-vehicle rate):

http://www.co.kern.ca.us/parks/tehachapi.asp

the other is the Brite Valley Aquatic Recreation Area, run by the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Parks District, which wants $15/night, and the number of permissible vehicles isn't specified:

http://www.tvrpd.org/facilities/brite-lake.html

The latter is used a lot by the fishing crowd, but I doubt that either of them would be crowded mid-week over the winter.

I agree about the valley fog, but it hasn't been a factor in any of the dozen-plus times I've driven that route over the past fifteen years or so. The only serious fog I ever encountered was last winter in Tehachapi, and that was at 4000 feet.

By the way, Tehachapi Mountain Park is at 8000 feet, which means that you've got 4000' to climb once you get to Tehachapi.(Wikipedia says that the name Tehachapi comes from a local Indian phrase meaning "hard climb.") The Brite Valley site doesn't list an elevation, but it looks like it's about the same as the town.

Comment by Ma'ili Point Westy on January 7, 2011 at 8:29pm: We are leaving early Thursday morning (3:00 am).

Comment by John LaTorre on January 8, 2011 at 11:26am: My current plans are to leave Wednesday morning and get as far as Tehachapi. On Thursday I'll get to LHC and camp in the vicinity, so as to be at the gate on Friday morning.

Comment by Ma'ili Point Westy on January 8, 2011 at 5:23pm: John, see you at BBB. Have a safe trip.

Comment by Laura Anne on January 9, 2011 at 8:47am: Anyone In Las Vegas we can follow? We're having trouble finding good spots to set up here in Vegas so we may leave early... Hit me up if anyone is in Vegas!

Comment by Ma'ili Point Westy on January 15, 2011 at 7:29pm: Jeff, I'm here with some family members (next to the "beetle barn bus")

Comment by Ma'ili Point Westy on January 16, 2011 at 11:05pm: Hey Jeff I stopped by looking for you lastnight. I was hanging out with Gary, Evelyn and Venus. Hope to meet you at one of the events.

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