Laughlin: Pride in the RiverWalk

Laughlin, Nevada
Riverwalk

We have one pet peeve about the conditions of the Laughlin RiverWalk.  Or parts of it. 

The Laughlin RiverWalk stretches from the Laughin/Bullhead City bridge by the Riverside Casino all the way past the River Palms Hotel and Casino.   Except for one brief stretch where you need to cut through the Colorado Belle, you can walk along the Colorado River using the RiverWalk.

(Harrah's is not accessible by the RiverWalk)

*Most if not all of the RiverWalk is well maintained, safe, and beautiful to enjoy.

Even the Raccoons and Skunks at night will generally leave you alone.  

Except....

The section once you get past the Golden Nugget and before you get to the River Palms needs some attention.  Actually the look of it is bordering on sad.  The views of the River and Mountains are still wonderful, but there seems to be little maintenance this area around the RiverWalk itself.

This is the section where the large Monkey statues holding torches stand lookout.

As soon as you head up the slight hill from the Golden Nugget, you can quickly notice conditions start to go downhill.

Just past the Golden Nugget

The nice white fencing ends as soon as you pass the Golden Nugget.  Rusted fencing runs right up until you get to the River Palms property, where once again it is nice and white. 

Trash, Bottles, Broken Glass are left uncleaned up for a long time.

Granted, right before the recent Toby Keith concert there seemed to be a small effort to take some of the weeds, bushes and trash out of the general area.    This is the exception not the rule.  Even that was only done half-way complete.

The general look is urban blight.  Most of the monkeys are broken in places. Graffiti, tagging, trash, weeds, rusted fencing, un-swept sidewalk, and a general look that lacks pride prevails.  What used to be what looks like a nice beach area is closed, overgrown and full of trash.

The large parking lot between the Golden Nugget and the River Palms has been the site of the Laughlin Amphitheater this year.  When not in use it sits as an empty lot, unused.  From what we have been told this area, including the land down to the river is for sale. There was a for sale sign on the Casino Drive side of the parking lot. This may explain why it is not maintained or kept up.

As the concert season came up, there was a minimal amount of landscaping done around the monkeys, with some weeding taking place and some gravel/rocks put in place.  Even this was not done completely and isn't kept up.

RiverWalk entrance to the Ampitheater 

Bleachers are removed from the lot when there is no concert coming up

For some reason only part of the area was landscaped.  Monkey statues are in bad shape. 

Beach Area is closed and a mess. 

Old Statues that must of been in the same theme as the Monkeys are also sitting in poor shape.

Once you are past the run down section you come to the River Palms area, which is nicely maintained.  In fact, they repaved the entire section right to the end where the Riverwalk ends.

If no one person or group is responsible for this, there should some sort of action to periodically clean up and improve the look of this part of the RiverWalk. 

That might be a committee from the town, the county, the Casinos, the Chamber, the Tourism group, or other people who have a vested interest in how the Laughlin is presented.  The town as a whole needs to show some pride in the area.  Even some basic landscaping, clean up, and perhaps security in this area to prevent littering, vandalism, and graffiti is a start.  Don't underestimate how bad it looks to visitors and tourists to the area.   We overhear people all the time commenting on how bad it looks and how sad it is that "Laughlin" lets it be this way.   What do you think?

Please share your thoughts and comments below! 

See pictures of the Golden Nugget section, where they recently cleaned up the area along the shore of the River.  

All opinions expressed are our own and from our personal experience.  Views and information is presented solely for informational and entertainment purposes only.  Photo's presented are ours.  We receive no compensation from the properties or restaurants mentioned and are not in any way affiliated with them.