Oatman: A Ghost Town on Route 66
Oatman is a former gold-mining town turned tourist stop on a historic stretch of old Route 66. From Lake Havasu City you reach it by heading north on Arizona State Route 95 to Interstate 40 and picking up the old road at the Topock/Golden Shores exit -- the southern end of the Bureau of Land Management's 42-mile Route 66 Historic Back Country Byway. The town is known for its wild burros, descended from pack animals turned loose by miners, that wander the main street and walk right up to visitors.
One correction worth carrying: Sitgreaves Pass is not on the route from Lake Havasu City. BLM places the pass on the far side of Oatman, between the town and Golden Valley on the Kingman leg, and that is where the 40-foot vehicle length limit applies. Approaching from Topock you climb the gentler southern side and cross the pass only if you continue on to Kingman.
The drive itself, not just the destination, is a big part of Oatman's appeal -- this is one of the more scenic and dramatic surviving segments of old Route 66 in Arizona. It is still a mountain road: allow more time than a straight-line distance would suggest, and check current road conditions before making the trip. The burros are wild animals, not attractions. BLM's guidance is not to approach, feed, stand close to, or touch them; people are injured by kicks and bites every year, and feeding is both illegal and the reason burros congregate on roads where they are struck by cars. See our Oatman day trip guide for the full picture.
Kingman: Route 66 History and a Home Base
Kingman sits at the junction of several historic Route 66 alignments and serves as a hub for the broader Route 66 corridor running through northwestern Arizona, with its own museums and a historic downtown -- the Kingman Commercial Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1986 -- built around that heritage. BLM describes 158 unbroken miles of Route 66 across western Arizona, from Topock east to Crookton Road near Ash Fork, as one of the longest continuous surviving stretches in the country, and Kingman sits in the middle of it. It is roughly a day-trip distance north of Lake Havasu City, on a more direct highway route than the Oatman road.
Kingman also works as an alternate overnight base for travelers splitting time between Lake Havasu and other Route 66 stops, or as a lunch stop on the way to or from Oatman, since the two towns sit along the same general corridor. Check current museum hours and any seasonal closures directly before planning a visit around a specific attraction.
Parker and Parker Dam
South of Lake Havasu City, the town of Parker and nearby Parker Dam sit downstream along the Colorado River. Parker Dam is what impounds the Colorado to form Lake Havasu, which means the dam marks the lake's downstream end, not its upper end -- Reclamation notes the reservoir backs up roughly 45 miles behind the dam, extending north toward Topock. The area offers its own stretch of river recreation distinct from the main lake.
On distances, the Bureau of Land Management puts Parker Dam about 35 miles south of Lake Havasu City on Arizona State Route 95, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service directs visitors to the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge about 17 miles south of the city, at mile marker 161. Oversized vehicles and vehicles towing trailers are not allowed to cross Parker Dam, and video and drone restrictions apply near it -- worth knowing before you set out with a boat behind you.
A day trip to Parker pairs naturally with the river towns further downstream for visitors interested in the broader Colorado River corridor rather than Lake Havasu alone. As with every destination here, confirm current road conditions before heading out.
Havasu National Wildlife Refuge
North of Lake Havasu, the Colorado River narrows into the 20-mile Topock Gorge within the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was established by executive order under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 -- originally as the Havasu Lake National Wildlife Refuge -- primarily to provide migratory bird habitat, not to protect a particular endangered species. It now covers 37,515 acres and roughly 30 river miles from Needles, California, to Lake Havasu City, sits within the Pacific Flyway, and supports some 318 bird species. The gorge's canyon walls and slower current also make it a favorite quieter paddling destination.
Much of the refuge's best scenery is realistically seen by boat or kayak rather than by road, which makes it more of a water-based day trip than a driving one for visitors based in Lake Havasu City. Check current refuge access points and any seasonal restrictions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before planning a visit.
The London Bridge Area, If You're Coming From Elsewhere
For travelers based in Kingman, Parker, or another nearby town rather than Lake Havasu City itself, the London Bridge and the English Village make a natural day-trip destination in the other direction -- channel-front dining and the lake's boating and beach scene concentrated in one walkable area, around a bridge whose granite really did span the Thames. John Rennie's London Bridge opened in 1831; the Historic American Engineering Record notes that the Lake Havasu structure is a concrete bridge faced with the original stone and the 1902 balustrade, rather than a stone-for-stone rebuild, and it was completed here in 1971.
Because it sits at the center of several of the routes described above, Lake Havasu City works as a hub in either direction: a base for day trips outward to Oatman, Kingman, and Parker, or a destination day trip in itself for visitors staying elsewhere along the Route 66 corridor.
Planning Multiple Day Trips: Basing Yourself in Lake Havasu City
Lake Havasu City's position roughly between Oatman and Kingman to the north and Parker to the south makes it a reasonable single base for several of these day trips rather than requiring separate stops. Grouping destinations by direction -- a northern day built around Oatman and Kingman, a southern day toward Parker -- tends to work better than trying to cover all of them in one trip.
Because desert routes, mountain grades, and seasonal road work can all affect actual drive time, build in more schedule buffer than a straight-line map distance suggests, particularly for the Oatman mountain road, and confirm current conditions with a state transportation source before a same-day round trip.
Read This Before Any of These Drives
Every trip on this page is a long drive through open desert, and the same handful of hazards applies to all of them.
Heat. Summers here run well past 110 degrees, and BLM names extreme heat among the hazards along the Route 66 byway, recommending October through April as the best window. Carry more water than the day seems to need, fuel up before you leave, and remember that a breakdown out here is a heat problem before it is a mechanical one. The National Weather Service is categorical: never leave a child, a disabled person, or a pet in a parked vehicle. Interior surfaces can reach 180 to over 200 degrees, cracking the windows does not meaningfully help, and animals can die of heatstroke within 15 minutes.
Monsoon and flash flooding. Arizona's monsoon season runs June 15 through September 30. Storms far out of sight can fill a dry wash or flood a dipped section of highway within minutes, and most flash-flood deaths happen in vehicles. Six inches of fast-moving water can knock down an adult; twelve inches can carry away most cars. Turn around, don't drown. Arizona's Stupid Motorist Law, A.R.S. section 28-910, makes a driver who goes around a barricade onto a flooded road liable for the cost of the emergency response that comes to get them.
Fuel, services, and cell coverage. BLM lists the nearest fuel to the Route 66 byway as Kingman, Golden Valley, Bullhead City, and Fort Mohave. There are long gaps with no services and no reliable signal on every one of these routes. Tell someone your plan, and do not rely on your phone to get you out of trouble.
Vehicle size and the dam crossing. Two hard limits worth knowing before you load up: BLM restricts vehicles to no more than 40 feet over Sitgreaves Pass between Golden Valley and Oatman, and oversized vehicles and vehicles towing trailers are not allowed to cross Parker Dam at all.