Roadtrips around Las Vegas part 2- Southwest USA 2018 - 12
Monday, 2018-05-07 - Roadtrips around Las Vegas part 2
Today it's road trip day 2 and I'm going south-east. It will be a pretty touristic trip; most places are mainstream nowadays.
I start with Nelson and as I'm here at 8:30 am I'm still on my own. Shortly after me, a small tourbus arrives, but they seem to go for a mining tour.
I have the impression the owners are adding more and more stuff on a daily basis. In the meantime, the place is at least twice as big as I remember. I spend much more time here than planned. After a good hour, I finally leave.
A brief stop at the mural in Searchlight and I continue my drive towards Oatman.
Due to the longer stay in Nelson and some traffic in Bullhead City it's already noon when I arrive. Of course, all the donkeys are there and I can only avoid the official high noon shooting by escaping into one of the tourist shops 🌝.
Yes, Oatman is mainstream at its best. But somehow it has a nice, relaxed atmosphere.
Cool Spring Station on the way down to Kingman is closed and it seems not only for the day.
I grab a burger in Kingman and on it goes to the next mainstream destination: Hackberry. Here everything is more or less as it used to be, except one important detail: The red Corvette in front of the entrance is gone. I take some pictures, stroll through the shop and decide that I will not go all the way to Seligman.
Still, I continue a bit to Truxton. There is not a lot to see, but some nice old cars (in this case restored) are standing around. After a few minutes, I turn around and drive back to Kingman.
Before lunch, I saw some nice murals but skipped them for later. My first stop is directly a hit.
The El Trovatore motel claims to have the biggest map of the world. Well, this obviously depends on your understanding of a map. But they decorated all walls with murals - Nice! They also named their rooms after various stars. So, you can spend a night i.e. in the Clark Gable room.
Two or three more stops and I leave Kingman for my last destination of the day. This one is now the clear opposite to the others. It's totally off the beaten tracks. Or do you know the Roy Purcell's Rock Murals or have even heard about the town of Chloride? If so, you’re a real insider.
The murals are easy to find. I just follow the street that is leaving the highway, pass the town and continue when the road becomes unpaved. It's not in a bad condition today, but definitely nothing for passenger cars. You might go for a short distance, but as soon as you feel uncomfortable you better park and walk. The road will not get better.
In the end I do the same when I climb a hill and see the sandy descent. As I have high clearance but no 4WD I'm not sure that I would come up again. So, I roll back the hill I just climbed, park the car at the side of the road and start to walk.
As it turns out the descend is not as sandy as I thought, but I anyhow have reached my destination. Right behind that hill are the murals. The murals are originally from 1966, but have been restored in 2006. So, the colors are brighter compared to a lot of other murals. The area is not huge, but worthwhile to see.
In Chloride itself I find some piece of art just when the street becomes paved again. A brief stop at the cemetery and then l call it a day.
It's around 6:30 pm now and all the animals are approaching the road between the highway and Chloride. From rabbits to road runners and from deer to cow (with nice longhorns by the way), everyone thinks that the other side of the road is much nicer than the one where they are.
Finally, I reach the highway and then Las Vegas. After bringing my stuff to the room I even have the mood for a walk along the strip.
