Pack in the fun during family visit to Kingman

Supposedly there aren’t any bears roaming in the mountain range rising over Kingman in northwestern Arizona.

But when you’re traveling the steep, winding road leading to the Hualapai Mountain Resort in the pitch dark of night, one can’t help but wonder what lurks among the pine trees.

This was a weekend getaway planned for my family of five.

Kingman, the county seat of Mohave County with a population of about 30,000 and about 100 miles south of Las Vegas, is often thought of as a pit stop for travelers between Sin City and Phoenix. But Kingman, founded in 1882 thanks to a railroad stop, could be a destination all its own for a quick weekend trip, with its winery and rum and whiskey distilleries.

This being a family trip, my wife and I, with three kids in tow, planned an itinerary of hiking, museum hopping and ghost-town gunfights.

THE RESORT

We arrived late on a Friday night at the Hualapai Mountain Resort, about 20 minutes south and 5,000 feet above Kingman.

The stars sparkled brighter, with little light pollution to dull them.

A band played Merle Haggard’s classic “Mama Tried” in the resort’s saloon as we checked in about 9 p.m.

It turns out, all the bears we could stand were in the first-floor refurbished suite we were assigned. The suite was adorned with bear pictures, paintings and sculptures.

With a king-sized bed, a gas fireplace and a futon couch that turned into a queen bed, the suite was cozy and clean.

The Hualapai Resort offered free Wi-Fi connection, but that’s it as far as mobile phone connections were concerned. To make calls, we downloaded the free phone application MagicJack.

In the morning, we opened the doors and let the cool March air, thick with the smell of pines, drift through the suite. (Hualapai is the name of a Native American tribe meaning people of the tall trees.)

The resort offered one of the most pleasant and fascinating breakfast experiences. It attracted those staying at the resort as well as members of the small Hualapai Mountain community — think a smaller Mount Charleston community.

Enter the main dining room and grab a table next to the panoramic window and wait.

Between 9 and 10 a.m., deer and elk made their way to a watering hole outside the window. The animals weren’t shy either. They strolled right up to the windows and stared at our children on the other side.

The animals are part of the reason why hunters aren’t always looked upon with welcoming eyes by residents.

“People love their elk around here,” said our waitress Lou — short for Louisa — Donovan. She said hunters are welcomed at the resort, but hunting is limited to Bureau of Land Management land. Community members love the wildlife, which can be seen wandering into different camp areas or front yards at the 50 or so properties on the mountain.

Staff and restaurant guests were all very friendly and offered suggestions on places to visit on our trip. Among them was Krystal Burge, who went out of her way to detail locations to visit in and around Kingman. She didn’t mention that she and her husband are the resort’s owners and own several fast-food restaurants in Kingman, too.

Breakfast was plentiful, fresh and delicious. You won’t regret ordering the half-order ham steak and eggs. (Beware: the full-order ham takes up a whole individual plate.) And on Sundays try the $8.99 buffet with fresh baked apple strudel and cheese blintzes along with standard breakfast fare.

Just don’t forget to enjoy the view.

Up the road from the resort, we stopped by Hualapai Mountain Park — a state park that required the purchase of a $7 day pass — for some hiking.

The state park has several cabins and campsites available at varying prices.

Along the easygoing Nature Trail hike we noticed an 8-point buck eating food being divvied out by kids outside their tent.

The hike was not particularly strenuous, but it opened up wide vistas of the empty desert south of the Hualapai Mountains.

Next up: a ghost town.

OATMAN

The yellow flowers sprung up wild from one side of the road to Oatman.

Narrowleaf goldenbrush, as they are commonly known, are far more inviting than the other side of old Route 66, which meanders along the edge of the Black Mountains with at least a 100-foot drop to the bottom; think the Pacific Coast Highway, but instead of the ocean at the bottom, it’s rocks and shrubs.

Still, it’s a wonder more vehicles don’t take a plunge over the edge as it was easy to stare gape-mouthed at the panoramic views of the vast emptiness of northwest Arizona.

Holes framed by aged wood in the ridges and mountains are sprinkled along the drive, reminders of the miners who came there to strike it rich.

Oatman became famous in 1915 after two prospectors found gold ore worth $10 million. More prospectors rushed in. For about a decade afterward mining was good business, until the town’s main employer, United Eastern Mines, closed shop.

The town survived for years because Route 66 was the main thoroughfare between Kingman and Needles, Calif. However, with new short routes built in the 1950s, Oatman was abandoned. Today it thrives as a ghost town, though it seems far more lively than that description would suggest.

On this March Saturday, it was bustling with merchants hawking jewelry, cowboy hats and T-shirts. Tourists from the world over, including Asia and Europe, swarmed the wood-planked sidewalks and fed the town’s wild burros — descendants of those abandoned by miners long ago.

Michele Ohayon of Boulder City has been visiting the historic setting since 2007.

Standing on the second floor of the famous Oatman Hotel — the oldest two-story structure in Mohave County — Ohayon was there to visit the hotel’s honeymoon suite.

Hollywood legends Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married in Kingman in 1939 while he was on a break from filming “Gone With the Wind.” The couple spent their honeymoon at the Oatman Hotel. It is said that Gable loved to play poker with the miners in the downstairs restaurant.

Inside, a wide, rickety wooden staircase leads upstairs and there’s little room to admire the history as a shop has been built on the second floor to sell trinkets, postcards and other wares.

The honeymoon suite is closed to outsiders, but a locked glass-paneled door allows visitors a view of the relatively small room.

Ice cream, chili and cold beer were served downstairs, where dollar bills decorate the restaurant like wallpaper. It’s a crowded spot as Oatman visitors waited in lines to use some of the few public restrooms in town.

Oatman allows visitors to hearken back to early 20th-century Western culture. There’s an inactive mine in the center of town, allowing visitors an insiders’ view of the dangerous work.

And then there are the gunfights.

Outlaw Willie and his group of scoundrels — Yosemite, Dusty and Reno — fight over loot stolen from the bank in a skit that garners tips from onlookers.

DAMBAR and ‘CINDERELLA’

After a quick trip to the resort to dust off, and just in time for a drive down into Kingman at sunset, we headed to DamBar for steaks.

The large dining area is decorated with photos and movie posters of Kingman’s most famous son, Hollywood actor Andy Devine — known for roles in legendary Westerns such as “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”

Wood chips are shed on the floor, hearkening back to an old-timey steakhouse.

Ask for more biscuits as you wait on your order of a steak smothered with onion-and-mushroom gravy or the marshal-cut prime rib, which the chef will gladly finish on the grill.

The spacious saloon seemed inviting for adults with multiple big-screen TVs and pool tables.

After a day of burro feeding, gunfights and a plentiful supper, a quiet moviegoing experience seemed in order.so We headed to the Brenden Theatres Kingman 4 cineplex, not quite the same as the Brenden Theatres at the Palms in Las Vegas. However, that may soon change as, one by one, the four theaters are being renovated.

The three kids all made it through the “Frozen Fever” short film before our twin 3-year-old boys fell asleep during director Kenneth Branagh’s epic retelling of “Cinderella.”

MUSEUMS

Kingman has no shortage of museums and landmark stops.

A map at the Powerhouse Visitors Center — aptly named because the building used to be a powerhouse — pointed out 32 such locations.

Start at Locomotive Park on old Route 66, which is nicknamed Andy Devine Avenue in town.

The park is highlighted by Santa Fe Locomotive No. 3759, a black painted train with a red caboose.

Across the street, the Powerhouse Visitors Center also houses the Route 66 Museum.

The museum offered a fascinating glimpse of westward-traveling Americans from pioneers in covered wagons to those searching for jobs during the Great Depression to vacationers in a Studebaker driving Route 66 for fun.

Up the road a bit is the Kingman Railroad Museum, operated by the Whistle Stop Railroad Club. Visits were $2 for adults and the kids received free wooden train whistles. People who love trains will adore the model trains set up and operating in the museum.

While the kids loved watching the model trains choo-choo through model towns, almost more interesting was that passenger trains traveling between Los Angeles and Chicago still stop in Kingman.

We missed out on several other museums, including the Kingman Army Airfield Museum, which highlights the training of more than 30,000 gunners who would fight in World War II.

But even as we left Kingman and headed north toward Hoover Dam and home to Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but start thinking about a return trip.