Sedona is a town built around the view. Pretty much stunning from wherever you are. It is populated by chic restaurants, tour operators, art stores and other boutiques. We spent some time walking around town yesterday but you really don't come for Sedona the city, you come for what surrounds it. Today we headed out to explore.
Our first stop about 30 minutes West was Tuzigoot. This is a pretty cool dig where they have unearthed the ruins of a Southern Sinagua village. In the 20's it was a dirt covered hill but a bit of digging exposed its rich history. It encompasses about 90 rooms. Interestingly most did not have doors, you climbed a ladder to the roof and then descended another into the room. I don't think it would be considered ADA compliant housing these days but it likely kept out predators.
We arrived early as we were still on Eastern time. Other than the rangers and staff, we had the place to ourselves. It was rather nice and peaceful and so much for the crowds prediction. This park is an easy hike, the trail is less than a mile and flat.
CC and I poked around a bit and enjoyed the scenery before heading to our next destination, Jerome AZ. Jerome is a mining town built around copper. It once had a population of over 15,000 but during the 1950 dipped as low as 50 people. It is making a comeback as a tourist destination and it appears they have started some mining again.
It was about a 20 minute drive from Tuzigoot to Jerome. You ascend most of the way. The town was built on the side of a hill near the mine. Apparently it is not the most stable land and when you combine that with the blasting from the mine you get the great sliding. Over time many of the original building just slid down the hill.
The downtown is not big, three blocks wide by one deep. Our first stop was the famous sliding jail. This structure had slid over its life but unlike many others that were ruined by sliding, they just kept using it. Eventually it was pulled further down to its current location where it has seen better days.
We walked the whole town, bought some fudge and candy and took in some history. They have a historical museum that captures artifacts and pictures from the town's boom through bust and rebirth. It was a very nice collection and well worth the $2 entry fee. The displays focused on different aspects of life or time periods and has a personal touch. For example one area had letters written home from soldiers fighting WWII, another area was devoted to mining and there was even a history of the oldest profession complete with court records of women charged with prostitution.
Finishing the museum we headed to the Jerome State Park about a half mile down the road. It is built around an early 1916 Douglas Mansion. They were a family of mining entrepreneurs. The museum covered more history and focused on the mining.
At the entrance to the park is the Audrey Headframe. Headframes are the structure that sits above a mine shaft to support the movement of things in and out of the mine. This one is above an abandoned 1900 foot shaft. They have thick glass above the shaft now so you can stand above it and look way down. We had a good bit of fun standing on the glass and looking way down.
We stopped by the town again for lunch and then headed South for our next stop. One thing we learned for sure is that the old West may look romantic but times were tough and living was hard. These days the fudge is sweet and tasty.
Montezuma Castle National Monument is another cliff dwelling site. We figured the crowds would catch up to us since Jerome had started to get busy. When we arrived there was plenty of parking and while it had a steady stream of visitors, it was not crowded.
We came to see native housing but as we walked in I saw a man holding a rattle snake. We stopped to inquire. The snake had crawled onto the people path and was captured to be relocated about a half mile away. The ranger had caught it and called in the snake expert.
He had chipped it, banded it and then contained it in the snake bucket so he could transport it safely. A snake bucket is a 5 gallon bucket with a locking lid. We got some close and personal views and learned a bit about the snakes. The snake was a bit ornery in the bucket and let us know with his rattle. Look closely below.
The paths all have signs saying to stay on them with a snake picture. This drove the point home.
The real reason we came was to see the cliff dwellings. These were more impressive than the one's we had seen before. but no ladders to visit in person.
Next stop was down the road to Montezuma's Well National Monument. This was a cool water source, technically a sinkhole. It is fed by underground rivers and even in droughts has water, as it gets about 1,500,000 gallons a day of inflow. It all comes from below so it looks static but a lot is happening down there. It is teaming with life unique to this spot including leeches. We decided that we would not take a dip.
We did the hike and saw some 1800s grafitti. Funny it is now a historical artifact.
On the way back we stopped at a highway scenic view and then dropped by the plane as I had forgotten to jot down the landing tach time.
Also we dropped off more used clothe. As we travel, we tend to leave the dirty clothe in the plane, this means that we have less luggage and weight to take to the hotel. Packing was sort of tough this trip as the temperatures were both hot and cold and the mix was not clear when we were packing.
On the way we stopped again at the airport scenic view and did part of the airport loop trail. Great views but there were some narrow spots with sheer drop offs. We were careful and avoided going over the edge. We ended the day sitting on the observation deck watching the sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment