A Little Pocket of Beauty; River Island State Park

There is this bit of an island in the Colorado River just off River Island State Park outside Parker, Arizona.

But the park itself is kind of an island in the rocks between Arizona Highway 95 and the river. You can see that in this video, which shows pretty much the whole park. If the video plays to the end (31 seconds) you’ll see a close up of our site, tucked near the rocks.

It’s a lovely site and the rocks are on the southwest side of the trailer.

So just about the time the hot afternoon sun would start shining in our windows it goes behind the hill. Nice.

There’s not a lot of room to walk Matey but he has liked walking among the campers…

and out to a path that leads above the beach.

There’s also a “Cactarium” that we’ve walked through.

They have some cow tongue prickly pear cactus in bloom.

It’s native to this area, but these were probably planted here.

There’s only one trail, Wedge Hill Trail, that goes about a half mile up to this bench at the top of the rocky hills on the northwest side of the campground.

I walked up it yesterday afternoon (it was in the mid-eighties) to see if it was a trail Matey could do. No, it is not. These steps start nice and low, but at the top end there are some narrow, steep cement steps I’d have to carry him up.

Once up those steps there are a couple of nice river overlooks.

You can see a good deal of the campground with its beach and boat launch.

This is looking upstream, on the right is Arizona, on the left, California.

Inshore from the first overlook was this trail to an intriguing hole in the hill.

But whatever it was for, it only goes in about 10 feet.

Going up the trail towards the top of Wedge Hill you come to this section. This was hard for me to manage without Matey, it is not something I want to do while helping an old dog.

And there was still a ways to go to reach the top.

After a couple of more steep sections with loose rock I came to the bench. This is where I shot the video.

That’s looking back down the trail, the highway can be seen coming from behind the hills.

The river makes a strip of green as it wends downstream.

Heading back, the steep spot looks even worse, the trail just disappears over the edge. Though it was steep and the footing was bad it was like that for less than fifty feet, so manageable enough for me.

This morning Bud and I walked up. My phone was almost dead so when we got to the top I decided not to take more photos. On the way down I realized I needed a photo of Bud up there. This is after we negotiated all the tough spots, up and down.

This is such a pretty place it almost makes up for the size and lack of trails.

But as a bonus we are right next to Buckskin Mountain State Park and can use those trails. So the next couple of days, when the temperature is predicted to be lower, we’ll check those out.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to enjoy this island of beauty.