The Hassayampa River normally beats the heat by running underground, but just outside downtown it shows off its crystalline shimmer. It's one of the few riparian habitats remaining in Arizona and a great place for birders to look for the 280 or so species, or to spot javelinas, lizards and bobcats. The 770-acre preserve is off Hwy 60 at mile marker 114, 3 miles south of town.
The new Vulture Mountains Recreation Area, established in 2019, will increase the area of the preserve by nearly one hundred times, to 71,000 acres. Hiking trails and a campsite were slated to be established sometime in the future in the Vulture Mountains, to be accessed off Vulture Mine Rd on the west side of Kingman. At the time of writing, the two areas were not yet linked by hiking trails.
