Arizona's West Coast

WE POP THE LID FROM A SMALL JAR OF GRAY-PEARL OSSETRA CAVIAR AND LAY IT NEXT TO MOUNDS OF FRESH MINCED RED ONION, CHOPPED EGG WHITES, AND CRUMBLED YOLKS. WE COAT TINY MELBA ROUNDS with sour cream and layer them with gently on the water, we are waiting for caviar. Bob Newman, captain of the 27the moon. Before us on all sides is a foot Best Datch Yet, pours chilled vodka coastline of multicolored fairy lights into sipping glasses and, refraining himbacked by black silhouettes of sloping self because he's piloting the boat, offers desert mountains. them to us, his three companions. “To the West Coast,” we toast, and It's a warm summer night. Rolling ting each other's glasses. It's the second night of a four-day trek in an area of western Arizona that's quickly turning into greenback gold thanks to the adult recreation it offers and the tourism it draws. We're on Arizona's glittering West Coast, a hundreds-mile-long stretch along the Colorado River that extends from Lake Mead on the north, southward to Yuma and beyond. Our trip covers the 90-mile strip between Bullhead City and Parker to the south, anchored in the middle by a gem of a mecca on the river, Lake Havasu City. In little more than 20 years, Arizona's West Coast has been transformed from barren desert lowlands to an incredibly diverse expanse of non-stop adult fun and great outdoor recreation. It's hot. Hot boats, hot beaches, and hot bodies are the summer staples here, enveloped in temperatures that often exceed 115° F.

ARI Z O N A'S WEST COAST

Between late May and September, the West Coast is partyland. On Memorial and Labor days, its shores are crowded with the latest in the world's fastest boats, and its restau-rants, bars, and shopping villages are jammed with people, most of them in their 20s and 30s, and all of them here for a great time.

"There's something you have to understand about Arizona's West Coast in the summer." Newman, a frequent visitor to the Colorado River, talks about the area as we put his Silhouette 7.8 in at a public marina in Bullhead City.

"In the summertime, there aren't any boats on the Colorado," Newman continues. "They're egos. These guys on the river have the fastest boats, the loudest boats, the most powerful boats; and it's their egos they're running."

Avid campers, the four of us generally opt to boat camp when we're touring along Arizona's waterways. On this trip, however, we want to see as much of the West Coast's communities and sites as the Colorado River itself, so we plan to spend each night at a motel in three different shoreline communities: Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, and Parker.

A short time after we put in at the Bullhead City marina, we run into dangerously shallow waters near the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation. Having come nearly 250 miles from Phoenix, we decide to pull in for the night and find a motel, then boat to Lake Havasu City and put in the next morning. There, we decide, we'll head back north up the river as far as possible, and then come south again for lunch in Lake Havasu.

Bullhead City is directly across the river from Laughlin, Nevada, a Western Monte Carlo on the Colorado River. Wanting a casino river view for the night, we pull into Bullhead City's River Queen Resort, where we're offered adjoining rooms. A small display card describing Don's Beach House is propped on the counter next to the hotel manager.

"What's the beach house?" I ask. "That's Don Laughlin's old house," the manager replies. "It's available, but only tonight."

"We'll take it," I say on a whim, encouraged by photographer Patrick Cone.

Fifteen minutes later, just as the sun is falling from the western sky, we're gazing through the smoked-glass walls of gambling mogul Don Laughlin's split-level beach house. Before us is a shoreline cartoon of gambling casinos outlined in hot-colored neon lights which splash onto the Colorado in dazzling distorted streaks of magenta, blue, orange, green, and gold. The river is teeming with sprinting water taxis expertly ferrying gamblers from one casino to the next.

We walk down from the beach house to a landing and take a ferry to the Colorado Belle Casino. There we dine in the New Orleans Room on steak and lobster. Then we watch the blank-faced, intent poker players, and the mesmerized gamblers at the electronic slots.

It's likely that by the end of this year, gambling along the Colorado River near Bullhead City will expand south, above California-side Needles. The Fort Mohave Indian

GOOD TIMES ON THE COLORADO AREN'T ALL MEASURED IN RPMS. SOMETIMES IT'S THE EXPECTATION AS YOU STEP UP TO A SLOT MACHINE.

ARIZONA'S WEST COAST

Reservation, operated by the Mohave Tribe, has partnered with Don Laughlin to build a $60 million resort-casino at the southern tip of Nevada, according to tribal officials.

An obsessive crime and mystery buff, I'm enthralled as Buz Fleming and I walk the quarter-mile length of one of Arizona's oddest and most popular attractions.

"I keep thinking I'm retracing the steps of Jack the Ripper," I tell Fleming. "And I see Arthur Conan Doyle's fevered stride swirling the night fog as he imagines another mind battle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty."

We're on London Bridge. Located in the heart of Lake Havasu City, the 171-year-old span is chief among the Lake Havasu attractions that draw nearly 200,000 tourists each year. The granite bridge, bought by bid in 1962 for $2.6 million by developer Robert McCulloch, connects Lake Havasu City to the city's buzzing man-made island.

Culminating with the bridge, this has been a day of stunning diversity. Boating north from Lake Havasu, we've seen the pale-colored mansions of Golden Shores on the Colorado coast outside Needles on the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation. We've seen speedboaters, houseboaters, endurance skiers, parasailors, fishermen, and golden blondes in thong bikinis. We've lunched on fresh salads, overlooking the shores ofthe Colorado at Shugrue's at Lake Havasu's Island Fashion Mall.

Best of all, we boated through the serene, lush Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, administered on the Colorado River's Arizona and California shores by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Extending 24 miles between Needles and Lake Havasu City, the refuge was created by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a sanctuary for a variety of high-Sonoran wildlife species. With 44,371 acres, it is home to thousands of geese, ducks, sandhill cranes, and even endangered species including the Yuma clapper rail, peregrine falcon, and southern bald eagle.

The beauty and serenity of the refuge are ideal for families and boat campers and a welcome respite from the general summer madness along the Colorado. Camping is permitted but restricted to boat and tent camping along the shoreline below the lava-cliffed Topock Gorge. I'd say an ideal outdoor vacation, especially for families, would be to rent a houseboat in Lake Havasu, motor up to the refuge, and camp along its shores.

After lunch at Shugrue's and an obligatory soda at youth-jammed, rock-and-rollin' Kokomo's nightclub, we check into sparkling rooms at the Island Inn Resort and rest before our moonlight cruise - the (OPPOSITE PAGE) Boaters relax at Topock Gorge, a 15-mile stretch of gentle currents and spectacular scenery in the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, whose water, marshes, and desert shores support some 260 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, and 20 species of reptiles, including rare bald eagles, peregrine falcons, bighorn sheep, and desert tortoises.

(LEFT) A jet-skier races to the finish line in a competition held on Lake Havasu. The lake hosts a number of water-oriented contests and celebrations, including the Jet Ski Finals, the Havasu Classic Outboard World Championships, and London Bridge Days.

(BELOW) Golden blondes are part of the scenery, says our author of Arizona's West Coast, a vacation wonderland that attracts singles, families, young, and old.

Caviar brought in anticipation of the full moon and this nighttime jaunt.

At 4 P.M., we head out on Lake Havasu south toward Parker Dam. Newman's boat is powered by an OMC King Cobra outdrive with a custom-built 502 cubic-inch big block Chevy engine and cruises along smoothly at 45 mph.

"How fast will it go?" I ask him.

Isolated on the lake at twilight, he opens it up. We hit more than 60 mph, and he holds for several minutes. Our faces are plastered back into uncontrollable "wind smiles" as he decelerates to 45, when we breathe again. He shuts down completely, and we drift as we wait for the moon.

It's heralded by a gold halo that shimmers above the black mountains to the east. We listen to a CD with a haunting Nina Simone version of "I Love You, Porgy," and the fiery crescent bursts above the mountain.

With haste, the moon ascends, and then she seconds herself by glittering the Colorado River with the brilliance of diamonds.

ARIZONA'S WEST COAST

We eat a great home-cooked breakfast at Parker's Blue Water Marina overlooking Lake Moovalya, a stretch of the Colorado River bounded by Parker Dam to the north and Rock Dam to the south. In the heart of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, Parker is destined to grow even more and change with warp speed. The reservation, which represents several Native American tribes, plans to open a casino near Parker this year, and the opening will likely bullet a major increase in Parker-area service and tourist industries. As it is, Parker now is home to world championship boating and waterskiing events, and its shoreline is a haven for several major vacation home developments. On the final leg of our West Coast tour, we put the Best Datch Yet in at Blue Water Marina and speed through the 11 miles between Parker and Parker Dam. It's 8 Α.Μ., and the river is already crowded with boaters. The boaters seem even more serious about their speed and power here than in any other area along the West Coast's waters, and I learn later that many of them are practicing for international endurance and speed races. I scour the boats looking for a friendly moniker like Mom's Pleasure or Dad's Dream. No way. These boats have menacing handles like Instigator, Agitator, Aggressor, Eliminator, and Major Trouble. If you can't keep up, you definitely want to get out of the way. The Best Datch Yet, named for an electric blender installed on board, keeps up quite well. In fact it catches the attention of many of the speedboaters, primarily because of its easy speed, two-hulled Italian design, and the way it seems to glide on the water. Returning to the Blue Water, we pull in the Best Datch Yet and check out of the Kofa Inn, where we spent the preceding night. We leave the West Coast, marveling at its diversity and the growth in the past 25 years, and nearly shuddering over the incredible growth that's sure to come. Before the coming burst, we pause for one last look.

Travel Guide: For detailed information about the great variety of places to travel in Arizona, we recommend the guidebook Travel Arizona and Arizona: Land of Contrasts, a video by Bill Leverton that offers a storyteller's perspective of the state. Both will direct you to exciting destinations and out-of-the-way attractions. Our Arizona Road Atlas, featuring maps of 27 cities, mileage charts, and points of interest, also is a necessity for travelers. To order, telephone toll-free (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call (602) 258-1000.

WHEN YOU GO

Summertime along Arizona's West Coast is for everyone - young, single "let's party" enthusiasts, family vacationers, gamblers, fishermen - the entire range of tourists. Whatever your pleasure, high on our list of West Coast "to-do's" are visiting the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, walking along the spectacular London Bridge, leisurely houseboating, and fishing. An important fact about the West Coast is that it is hot: temperatures routinely exceed 115° F., especially in July and August. Three absolute essentials for your trip are plenty of water, a powerful sunscreen, and a hat. There are dozens of restaurants, shops, motels, and resorts along the West Coast as well as numerous camping areas. For more information about West Coast activities, your best bet is to call the chambers of commerce in Lake Havasu City, (520) 855-4115; Bullhead City, (520) 754-4121; and Parker, (520) 669-2174.