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Day Trips

Laughlin, Nevada

Christmas Tree Pass

On the way into Laughlin, Nevada (if your coming in from Rt. 95 you can make a detour and go over Christmas Tree Pass. This is a 4 wheel drive road, but certainly doable by any 4X4. Rt. 163 is the main road into Laughlin off of Rt. 95. But taking this side trip is very interesting. Cal-Nev-Ari is close to the West entrance of the Christmas Tree Pass.

This is the reason for the name (see photo to the left). Very unusual in the desert. There are also quite a few petroglyphs in this area near the top of the pass. You have to hike to get to them. Also some strange rock formations can be found here in the desert.

Here's the road down the mountain. At the bottom you'll come out on Rt 163 just above Laughlin, Nevada. The road shown here is not typical of the entire road. There are some bad spots in the road, but there are also places to turn around.

Laughlin

This is an inter-active Wikimapia Satellite Map. You can zoom in / out and drag the map to scroll. Mouse over the map. Try it! Shown here - Laughlin, Nevada.

Here we are in Laughlin at the Riverside Casino. This is where it all started; with Don Laughlin. Now from a personal view -- this is one of the nicest men we've ever had the privilege to know. He is genuinely a nice person and doesn't forget you or your name. I guess that's how he made this casino town what it is today. Now that's not to say that the other casino hotels aren't great places to stay here, We've stayed in all of them at one time or another, but keep coming back to the Riverside in Laughlin.

These Colorado River shuttles run up and down the Colorado River all the time and make it easy to go from one casino, restuarant, or hotel to another. You can step right off the back of each Hotel onto a dock and travel to another casino this way.

This is the bridge that Don Laughlin built and paid for to make it easy to get across the Colorado River from Bullhead City and other parts of Arizona to the casinos. In the middle of the Photo is one of the Colorado River tour boats coming back from Davis Dam.

And here we are back at the Riverside Casino. This was the only casino here in Laughlin, Nevada when this all started years ago. The top of the building shown here in the foreground is where Don Laughlin lives and takes care of the casino. Don't miss this. It's another one of the great day trips in the desert.
Have fun here -- we know you will.....

On the South leg of the boat cruise you'll see all the Casinos along the edge of the Colorado River. The Colorado Belle shown here is a replica of an old paddle wheeler; except ths hotel is huge. The Aquairus is another one along the River. Also the one with the cowboy on the left is called the Pioneer and the Golden Nugget, and the Flamingo, and the River Palms, Edgewater, Tropicana, and Harrah's.

We took the Colorado River Boat Cruise and it's worth it to go. Here's Davis Dam. This is a far as you can go up the Colorado River. There were so many birds here at the Dam it made the trip worthwhile.