Pirate Cove - Needles, California

The campground we stayed at for the last month in Needles, California was Pirate Cove Resort & Marina.  I mentioned before that we were out on their peninsula just steps from the Colorado River.  Very pretty and VERY sandy ;).

Back in the main campground area there was a playground for the kids, that's also where the showers were.  They had a store that sold the usual grocery items and some clothes.  Nice clothes...name brand swimwear, flip flops, etc., and fishing stuff.  There was also a marina, restaurant, zip line, and I don't know what else.  We took our food to the beach area one evening and had a picnic, but that was it.  We never went to the restaurant or anything.

They had a pirate ship anchored in the cove.  Kinda neat...

We were visited by the cutest little birds, Gambel's Quail.  We were in the camper and heard a "peeping" sound.  All the windows were open and when we looked out there were a bunch of these little birds running by.  The kids had learned about them in their Saguaro National Park Jr. Ranger books back in Arizona, but we had yet to see any.  So fun to finally see some!

male and female

We enjoyed our stay there.  I don't know that I would want to be there in the summer, though.  Tons of people in boats like to go to the cove when it's hot.  We prefer the slower more quiet off season.  Plus it's ridiculously hot there in the summer.  The highs often reach 120 F up to 125 F with lows at night only dropping down to 100 F.  No thank you!

I will tell you, if you ever stay there the laundry room is creepy.  We took one peek inside and decided to skip using it.  The laundry in Needles was next to an "adult" store, so we skipped that one too.  We found a really nice, clean laundry in Lake Havasu City that was in a family oriented area of town.  It was a bit of a drive, prolly 45 minutes or so, so we only went once a week.  It was called Southside Laundromat and it was worth the extra driving.  The lady that ran it was super nice, she gave the kids some chocolate candies and was just really friendly.  The other thing was the campground showers...they were coin operated.  Either be prepared with plenty of quarters or use your shower in your camper.  We just used our shower.  Neither of these things was a big deal, just a heads up should you ever stay there.

Overall, everything was great.  We ordered all of our Christmas presents online and had them shipped to the park office.  The girls in the office were always sweet about it and we got everything with no problems whatsoever.  If we are ever in the area again, we would stay at Pirate Cove...on the peninsula, of course :).