If you're looking for a ghost-town experience filled with weather-beaten buildings, derelict automobiles and vintage signs, El Dorado Canyon, 30 miles southeast of Henderson, is a picturesque mother lode. Easily accessed by car, the canyon's bonanza is the Techatticup Mine district, which is set in a vista of towering rocks with the Colorado River and Arizona on the horizon. A small store offers tours, kayak rentals and cold drinks; it's funky and filled with old-timey knickknacks and taxidermy, too.
From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, the canyon area was served by a fleet of steamships that traveled the Colorado River all the way from Yuma, CA, to well into what is now Lake Mead to the north.
If thunderstorms are in the weather forecast, it's best to avoid this winding, steep road due to flash-flood danger. Mobile phone service can be spotty, or nonexistent, in the canyon, especially near the river at the end of the road.
