Oatman – OsteoPraxis on the road

After surviving Independence Day, it was time to head back down the other side of the mountain dropping over 1,000m (3,333ft) in elevation…..next destination Kingman, Arizona. Now we were leaving the relatively cooler temperatures in the mountains and facing the blistering heat of the edge of the Mohave Desert. I was not looking forward to it.

Zuni Village RV Park was my choice…..I spent time picking this park poring over google maps in satellite view looking for the one promising the most shade.

The daytime temp in Kingman as we headed there was 47 C (116F)…I was absolutely dreading it. Stepping out of the truck was like stepping directly into an oven, there was a breeze but even the air movement was like a giant hairdryer. Sunglasses were necessary to stop your eyeballs from drying out…it was hot.

The lady in the office did a bit of juggling to get us in a site with trees……but the trees had kinda passed their sell by date….the ones on our site were large ..but sparse…and not really cutting it. There was a pool…but it was green and soupy….and did not look cool in any sense of the word.

We were booked to be there for a couple of days. From Kingman we planned to take the original 66 road up through Oatman and also to backtrack to Seligman. Kingman, Seligman and Peach Springs being important checkpoints for Radiator Springs (Pixar Cars movie) and also being parts of the original path of Route 66.

We set off for Oatman at 7am the next morning……it was already 39 degrees C (102F) by 8am….!!!…and it only got hotter……

The road to Oatman is an iconic one for its 191 curves…..and for the platoon of burros that live in and around Oatman. ….and by curves I do not mean gentle sweeping bends in the road…..

Its kinda hairy driving…..steep ups and downs and hairpin bends….. (and no barriers…!!)

As the passenger on the edge of that never ending cliff it was hard to look out the side window…!!!(Much to the amusement of the driver)

There is very little traffic on this road….I think we may have passed just a couple of vehicles……and a couple of groups of motorcycles, it’s a destination road to drive on a motorbike….

It was bad enough in the truck let me tell you.

We stopped at a lookout to take some pix and suddenly this donkey appeared and came running towards us……full on EEE AW-ing…!!!

I had heard tell of the donkeys in Oatman…but I was not sure how friendly they were going to be outside the town…..this guy seemed determined to get snacks….but I was not taking any chances of being the snack..!!

The town is something else….

If you imagine a gunslinger cowboy town from the 1800’s decked to the nines in tourist kitsch you are still not close to how this place is.

Its a tourist trap for sure….but also manages to be quite charming… (and boiling hot in July..!!)

…and then there are the donkeys…..

They just wander around….in great numbers…..apparently the donkey/burro population of Oatman is about 1700….. they sell burro feed for the tourists…..we watched a couple of German girls trying to tempt one so they could take some photographs. The donkey walked up to the girl…grabbed the paper feed bag out of her other hand and walked away munching…..we did laugh….LOL….

Driving out the other side of town…you are quickly in to the Mohave desert….. it’s beyond imagination what this must have been like in the 20’s and 30’s as people migrated west on this road…… we were grateful for the engine cooling system and the air conditioning….!!!

We chanced on another group of donkeys…they were clearly used to being fed by tourists in black Chevy trucks judging by the way they emerged from the clumps of cacti and swarmed us…LOL. (They completely ignored the Arizona Utilities Truck that passed the other way….. 🤣)

Of course, we had to stop to take some pictures of those super cool cacti…

….and by we, I mean….(Editor. The things I do for the blog, really needed asbestos soles on my shoes, was at more risk from the wildlife than traffic)

There is not much on this road……and if one were to break down…..1.) cell phone coverage is pretty sketchy and 2.) there is very little traffic passing 3.) the environment could not be more challenging ……it’s a bit scary.

There is a rest stop along the way that is another sobering moment thinking back to those ‘Grapes of Wrath’ style travelers