First we are going to Jerome located at 5200 feet on top of Cleopatra Hill between Prescott and Flagstaff. Jerome is the historic copper mining town founded in 1876 and was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona territory.
Below are some pictures of the wonderful scenery as we climbed the road leading to Jerome. Yes there was still some vestiges of snow on the shaded side of the mountain. We were blessed with wonderful weather on this trip and the air was a bit crisp, but the sun was warming.
Jerome has had a rebirth and is now a thriving artist community and also a tourist favorite. As you can imagine parking is at a premium. We were lucky and readily found a spot. We walked around and visited a local museum dedicated to the mining history of the town.
The homes here are perched on the mountain side and the view from them must be awesome. Below is the local firehouse.
The local hotel below has been updated. The original hotel was destroyed by fire long ago. This is a picture that was taken from near the fire house.
The following picture taken from a higher level in town is the home that the mine owner built for himself and his family during the boom times in the 1800's.
Once we left Jerome we traveled to the Sedona area. My son, years ago, told me it was far prettier than the Painted Desert. Following are a sampling of the pictures that we took. I have to admit that the pictures do not do justice to the natural beauty of the area.
The above rock structure has been named Cathedral Rock.
The town is below us. It must be a mixed blessing to live with such natural beauty, however the traffic is bumper to bumped most of the year.
We finished sightseeing in the Sedona area and headed for Flagstaff our overnight location. To get there we drove through the Oak Creek Canyon area passing by the Slide Rock a natural waterchute. The driving through out all the mountains with the sharp curves and hairpin turns required intense concentration. By the time we arrived in Flagstaff, I was beat.
When we arrived at our hotel for the night Mike and I went in to arrange for our rooms. Carol opted to stay in the car. I told the clerk that we had rooms with queen beds reserved. I was more than dismayed when she told us that she had updated her computer system that day and it had crashed. She did not know who was in what room and what was available and it would be awhile before it would be fixed. I told her it was not acceptable and I wanted rooms then. She said she would call a sister hotel and arrange our room. She asked me if we really wanted a queen bed or two doubles. I smiled and said we need two rooms both with queen beds as my wife was in the car. OOH she said, I see. When we got back in the car, I asked Mike if he picked up on the fact that the clerk thought we were a couple. We all had a good laugh. We were able to check into the second hotel. It was adequate.
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