Needles: Remnants of Rock Stars and Gold Mines

Nikki Wynn

Jan 19, 2013 — 3 min read

While there’s lots of hiking in and around Lake Havasu City, Needle mountain loop trail is the only one we’ve been on that has remnants of rock stars and million dollar gold mines!

The Needles trail is about 30min outside of Havasu and just short of crossing the bridge to California. However, getting to the actual trail head is a bit tricky and directions can be dicey. It’s a good thing our friend Doug has a Jeep.

Stop by the BLM office to get a good map and directions. We suggest 4WD…and a good driver!

The scenery is beautiful and the rock formations are…um…well…erect….

The views are really a distraction from the true mission of this destinations discovery. The side show attractions!

Hidden in caves and crevices are all sorts of treasures. In one spot we found an old stuffed burro missing it’s eyes, sitting next to a broken picture frame and tattered nudy magazine (sorry, no photos). In another hollowed area we found this old guitar with Led Zeppelin’s name engraved on the back. Ok, Led Zeppelin’s name wasn’t there but it would have been cool if it was.

I wish I had some grandiose tall tales to go along with the hidden treasures but I don’t. What I do know is why you can find a bed frame and old bean cans lying around.

There are a series of old mine shafts all through the area and let me tell you, those miners were some messy dudes! They left their crap everywhere!

While we did peek our heads into one of the shafts…

We didn’t explore into the mines…sad, I know but it was for a good reason. Its winter and the bats are in hibernation (and shouldn’t be disturbed) and there is a very serious epidemic of White-Nose Syndrome. It’s killed more than 6.7 million bats which equals way too many mosquito’s running around free! Don’t believe me, check out the website. http://whitenosesyndrome.org/

We did keep with our tradition of rewarding ourselves at the end with cold beer. Something about a really cold beer at the end of a good workout just tastes soooo good!