Oatman, Az.

Yesterday we went to Oatman, Az. We had been there a couple of weeks ago and had such a good time we wanted to go back. Oatman is an old mining town turned tourist stop. The town madow is “The Ghost Town to Tuff to Die”. The town is up in the mountains at an elevation of about 2700’ and surrounded by higher peaks. The feel of an old mining town has remained and the one street that runs through the town is old Route 66. There are a plethora of souvenir and antique shops, selling everything from Route 66 signs to metal sculptures to tee shirts.

Oatman, Route 66 and the mountains

The main attraction in Oatman are the “wild” burros that roam the street. It is a sight to see. The burros are descendents of burros used in the mines from 1800- early 1900. I would not say these guys are exactly wild. Tourist can buy small hay cubes and carrots to feed the burros. Everyone is happy to feed them and it is obvious they know what the deal is. Victoria discovered they also like trail mix, at least one guy did.

Victoria loved the babies

MMMM GOOD!

The burros are very tame and you can feed, pet and take pictures with them. The all wonder the streets taking the handouts from all the silly humans. On the weekends there is an endless stream of car, motorcycle and 4 wheeler traffic. The traffic is slowed or stopped on a regular bases due to the local 4 legged residences blocking the road.

Burro Jam

You have to watch your step in Oatman

The town also puts on cowboy shoot outs several times a day in the middle of the street. One of course is at high noon. These are light hearted family fun and donations are accepted to maintain the public restrooms and also for the local Shiners. They donated over $60,000 to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals just from the gunfight shows and donations of the visiting tourist. We of course did our share. I think that is pretty impressive for a small group of guys from a town smaller than the size of most of your neighborhoods.  

We really like Oatman, even though it is a tourist trap between the burros, the gunfights, the old west feel that the town has kept, the beautiful surroundings and the overall good fun of the town it makes for a great day.

The weather was perfect “no wind”  sunny and 65 degrees so on the way home we found a trail that led out into the desert. We walked it for a short ways examining all the colorful rocks and desert plants. We have discovered that the desert has many spectacular plants. We have also found out “sometimes the hard way” that almost all of these plants BITE. It seems that every plant has some sort of thorn or has sharp and pointy spines. We have learned to examine them very cautiously.

We made one more stop on the way home at the river. A short walk along the rocky shore was a great way to end a great day.