Lake Havasu: Beyond the Spring Break Reputation

Lake Havasu City sits on the Colorado River about 200 miles west of Phoenix, on the California border. Its national reputation is established by the annual spring break convergence — tens of thousands of college students arriving from across the Southwest — which has obscured what the city offers the other fifty weeks of the year. The London Bridge, relocated from the Thames River in 1967 and rebuilt at the lake's southern end, is the reason Lake Havasu City exists: developer Robert McCulloch purchased the dismantled bridge, moved it stone by stone, and built a town around it. The lake itself — thirty miles long with 450 miles of shoreline — offers serious boating, fishing, and water sports that attract a different visitor than the spring break demographic. Striped bass, largemouth bass, catfish, and bluegill support a legitimate year-round fishing culture. The Arizona side of the lake preserves substantial desert canyon terrain accessible only by boat. Topock Gorge, twenty miles north, is a narrow volcanic canyon with bighorn sheep on the canyon walls. The best months: October through April.