Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Sedona II

4/30/2007
Made our second trip to Sedona today. The picture below shows what a beautiful view there is in downtown Sedona.
We took a jeep ride. The scenery was great. The trip taught me that I don't want to take another jeep trip unless I'm driving. The road was as bad as the haul road in Alaska and that's 500 miles of ruts. This one wasn't as long but the road was just as ruff. That wouldn't have been so bad at a reasonable speed, but the driver drove like she was in the Baja 500. These roads are rutted and narrow and there are no guard rails.
As I said the scenery was great. With your imagination here is a turkey and a camel

and here is kissing rock.

This is the view from the top at 7000 feet on the Mogollon Rim which is part of the Colorado Plateau.
We look like we are standing in front of an old western movie back drop.

Another view of Sedona. Sedona comes in two parts. The old down town area is the tourist shops and restaurants. No super markets and no banks. The newer section in the west end has the super markets, banks and restaurants. The two pictures in this set are both from the old part of town.

We also took a trolley ride it is a 55 minute narrated tour. This is one of the pictures from the trolley ride, look closely and you'll see the house in the middle of the picture. It was much more pleasant except we had driven over the same route the other day when we were here. The lady driver was very knowledgeable and did point out some things we had not seem previously.

Jerome, AZ. 4/29/2007

We went back up the mountain today to Jerome the "Largest Ghost Town in America". Founded in 1876 to mine the copper ore. Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. The population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920's. After World War II the demand for copper decreased to the point where in 1953 the mine closed. Today Jerome is a tourist and artist community with a population of about 450. On the Sunday when we were there the population must have been 4,450. The tourist business has really picked up. Jerome is built on the side of Mingus Mountains at an elevation of 5300 feet and a 30% slope.

The pictures below were taken at pull off just below the town.
Jerome, AZ. In the early days of the town they had problems with buildings sliding down the hill.

The white looking building is the visitor center for the Jerome State Park. The large building in the back ground was a hotel built to house the mine workers.

A view of the Copper Smelter in Clarksdale where the copper ore from the mine in Jerome was taken.

View of Clarksdale from Jerome. The ridge in the far background is part of the Colorado Plateau. For more in formation on Jerome, AZ. click on the link below.
http://www.azjerome.com/