Places to go!

 The Hava - Spider as we call him is one of two unique spider art deco pieces placed in the desert. These spiders along with several other locations make for some great stops when your out on a trail ride from Mesquite Ranch.

 The mountain range consists of five main peaks: Dean Peak, Getz Peak, Aspen Peak, and Hayden Peak overlooking the broad Hualapai Valley to the north toward Kingman; and the tallest, Hualapai Peak, on the south. 

Bear, elk, mule deer, mountain lion, javelina, and other animals can be found here. 

 There are 10 miles (16 km) of hiking trails ranging in difficulty, and an ATV trail head which leads to the trails. There is a designated fire escape route to get down and out of the park in the event of a wildfire. 

Hualapai Mountain Park is a county park managed by the Mohave County Parks department and the Hualapai Mountain Park staff. The park encompasses over 2,300 acres with elevations ranging from 4,984 feet to 8417 feet.

In 1874, "Chloride Jack" Owens and a party of prospectors made their way into the the mountains north of the Bill Williams Fork and found an outcropping of silver atop McCracken Hill. Soon after, a mill was erected. A group of senators bought the mill from nearby Greenwood City at a foreclosure price and put it to work producing $1.5 million in silver. Then in the winter of 1877-78, the McCracken Consolidated Mining Company erected another mill at the new Virginia City. The mines soon played out and by 1879 the place was deserted. Its peak population was about 100. 

Big Sandy River runs through Northwest Arizona and has some awesome scenery and wildlife here you can get your feet wet while relaxing in a deep canyon with tall Arizona cliffs listening and watching all nature has to offer.

 The Big Sandy River is both an intermittent and perennial stream in Mohave and La Paz counties in northwestern Arizona in the United States. It begins where Cottonwood Wash and Trout Creek converge in the Hualapai Indian Reservation east of U.S. Route 93 then flows past Wikieup south of Kingman. The Big Sandy River then passes the Signal Ghost Town Site, meanders through the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness, and joins the Santa Maria River in Southern Mohave County to form the Bill Williams River. The Bill Williams River then empties into Alamo Lake State Park. The Big Sandy River is 55.7 miles (89.6 km) long. 

 The Big Sandy drainage basin covers approximately 2,000 square miles (5,200 km2) in Mohave, La Paz, and Yavapai counties. The Hualapai Mountains are west of the river, and the Aquarius and Mohon Mountains lie to the east and southeast, the Juniper Mountains further east, and the Peacock Mountains and Cottonwood Mountains to the north. Hualapai Peak at 8,417 feet (2,566 m) is the highest point in the basin. 

 The river flows through the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness. 

 The Big Sandy River flows year-round (perennial flow) south of the Signal Ghost Town site and intermittently above this site. In the period of 2007-2016, the surface water flow of the Big Sandy at the USGS monitoring site at the Signal Ghost Town ranged from a minimum of 22 US gallons (83 L) per second to a maximum output of nearly 524,000 US gallons (1,980,000 L) per second during flooding in early 2010. 

 Except for the northeastern part of the basin, aquifers supply a median well flow of 300 US gallons (1,100 L) per minute and up to 2,000 US gallons (7,600 L) per minute at Cane Springs, along Route 93 north of Wikieup. The largest spring in the Bill Williams River watershed is south of Cane Springs in the Big Sandy watershed; it discharges at 1,600 US gallons (6,100 L) per minute. Much of the water pumped from the basin is used in mining operations in the Bill Williams area. The Big Sandy basin, as of 2000, had a population of 1,142 people. 

 The Big Sandy River basin is home to numerous animals and plants endemic to the region. An endangered bird, the southwestern willow flycatcher, resides in the basin, which has one of the few riparian areas remaining in Arizona. Wild Burros, a protected species, live in the river valley along with ring-tailed cats, mountain lions, coyote, and elk. Plant species include sycamores, willows, and cottonwoods. 

The Big Sandy Shoot, billed as the Worlds Largest Private Machine Gun Shoot, is held twice a year, both in the spring and fall. This event allows attendees to rent time actually shooting machine guns of various types. You also have the opportunity to view night shooting with tracers, along with Military tanks and Howitzers being fired amd much more. This is a three day event.

Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge includes  activities such as nature walks, bird watching, hiking, and kayaking on the Bill Williams River.

The Bill Williams River is a 46.3-mile-long (74.5 km) river in west-central Arizona where it, along with its tributary, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south. It is a major drainage westwards into the Colorado River of the Lower Colorado River Valley south of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, and the drainage basin covers portions of northwest, and west-central Arizona. The equivalent drainage system paralleling the east–west lower reaches of the Bill Williams is the Gila River, which flows east-to-west across central Arizona, joining the Colorado River in the southwest at Yuma. The confluence of the Bill Williams River with the Colorado is north of Parker, and south of Lake Havasu City.

To the north of the river are the Artillery Mountains, the Rawhide Mountains and the Bill Williams Mountains. To the south lie the Buckskin Mountains. The old mining camp of Swansea (now a ghost town) lies in the Buckskin Mountains about 3.7 miles (6.0 km) south of the river.

The two tributaries that form the Bill Williams are the Big Sandy River and the Santa Maria River. Alamo Lake, a flood control reservoir, lies just west of the confluence of the two tributaries. The reservoir and state park is a major fishing and recreation region on the river. The confluence of the Bill Williams River with the Colorado River is just north of Parker Dam and the entire riparian environment has state parks and wilderness areas: Buckskin Mountain State Park, Cattail Cove State Park, and the Gibraltar Mountain, Swansea, and Cactus Plain wilderness areas.

 Fish species in the Bill Williams river include largemouth bass, yellow bullhead, green sunfish, bluegill, carp, mosquitofish, red shiner, razorback sucker, and others. The lowland leopard frog, North American river otter, beaver, muskrat, Arizona toad, and spiny-spotted turtle are among the major aquatic vertebrates found in or near the water. Plants in the riparian zones include several kinds of willows as well as bulrushes, and saltcedar. The Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge near Parker is frequented by at least 335 species of birds. 

The city of Scottsdale, Arizona, formerly owned a ranch on the river and planned to export water from it. However, in 2006, Scottsdale sold the ranch & surroundings to the Phelps Dodge mining company, which operated it as a nature reserve, under a government program for companies to restore habitat in one area to balance environmental damage caused elsewhere.

The Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge protects the lower course of the river, to its mouth at Lake Havasu reservoir. The Sonoran Desert rare riparian habitat of Bill Williams River NWR draws a variety of Neotropical migratory birds, from Central and South America en route to their breeding grounds in the north. It has one of the last stands of the natural Cottonwood-Willow Forests plant community along the lower Colorado River, with Fremont's cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and Goodding's willow (Salix gooddingii) the primary tree species.

Swansea

This is an old west town with ruins from the old school house, post office, two cemetaries and several other building foundations still remaining. Swansea was an old Copper mining town located on the banks of the Bill Williams river.

 Swansea is a Ghost town in La Paz County in the U.S. State of Arizona. It was settled around 1909 in what was then the Arizona Territory. It served as a mining town as well as a location for processing and smelting the copper ore taken from the nearby mines. 

Prospecting and mining in the area first began around 1862, but the remote location and lack of transportation kept activity to a minimum. By 1904, the railroad was coming to nearby Parker, and local miners Newton Evans and Thomas Jefferson Carrigan saw an opportunity to develop the area. Within a few years, the two miners had built a 350-ton furnace, a water pipeline to the Bill Williams River, and hoists for five mine shafts. They called the new town Signal (not to be confused with the other Arizona ghost town of Signal). By 1908, the claims in the area had been consolidated by the Clara Gold and Copper Mining Company, which set up its headquarters in the mining camp that would become Swansea. That same year, what was to become the Arizona and Swansea Railroad connected Signal to Bouse some 25 miles (40 km) away. These two factors spurred the growth of the town, and its population quickly grew to about 300 residents.

When mining operations first began, the lack of smelting facilities meant that the copper ore had to be sent away for smelting. The destination for most of the ore was Swansea, South Wales, United Kingdom and it was sent by way of railroad to the Colorado River, and was then shipped from the Gulf of California around Cape Horn to the United Kingdom. Once a smelter was constructed in 1909, Signal took its new name from the previous location of the smelter they had used in Wales. As such, the destination of the ore sent for smelting remained the same. When the post office was established on March 25, 1909, it was under the name of Swansea.

At its peak, Swansea boasted an electric light company, an auto dealer, a lumber company, two cemeteries, a saloon, theaters, restaurants, barbershops, an insurance agent, a physician, and of course the local mining and smelting facilities.

The town was short-lived. By 1911, the Clara Consolidated Gold and Copper Mining Company was in financial trouble. The company's promoter in Swansea, George Mitchell, spent considerable sums of money on improvements aimed at attracting investors at the expense of practical improvements to the process of mining, hauling, and processing ore. As a result, the high cost of improvements coupled with the high cost of production meant that the mines could not turn a profit as the per-pound cost of copper production exceeded its price by three cents. The company collapsed in 1912, closing down the mines.

After a false start later that year under a new owner, the mines and the town remained quiet until the American Smelting and Refining Company bought the properties in 1914. The new owners restarted mining operations and once again built up the town. Swansea lived on until just after World War I when copper prices dropped, and the town went into a steep decline. Swansea's post office was discontinued on June 28, 1924, and the population dispersed. By 1937, the mines shut down, and Swansea was already a ghost town.

 Today Swansea is under the protection of the Bureau of Land Management, and constitutes the Swansea Town Site Special Management Area. Due to vandalism and exposure to the weather, the remains of Swansea are in decline. However, you can still see a number of adobe structures, the remains of the railroad depot, two cemeteries, and several mine shafts. Remains of numerous cars can be seen scattered throughout the site. The Bureau of Land Management has restored roofs to rows of single-miner's quarters, established an interpretive trail for visitors to Swansea, and is engaged in efforts to shore up other structures. In addition, there are many stone foundations where buildings once stood. 

 The principals of the Tread Lightly! program are summarized with the word TREAD.
T Travel only on designated routes.
R Respect the rights of others.
E Educate yourself.
A Avoid sensitive areas and wildlife.
D Drive responsibly.