Arizona Sunsets
We ended up
exploring a good part of Arizona today by taking a 300 mile road trip that took
us to some interesting places. First stop was Montezuma Castle. The structure
was built between 1100 and 1300 and is a five story 20 room dwelling. It sits
in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley floor.
Montezuma Castle
Another View
More Barkless Trees
From
Montezuma Castle we continued north bound for Sedona which is located along
scenic route 179. The views along this route are fantastic, and the rock
formations like Courthouse Butte, Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock give this area its
red rock claim to fame. Traffic was very heavy going through Sedona and we
didn’t have an opportunity to stop and walk around, we will save that for
another time.
From Sedona
we took alternate route 89 which left Sedona and headed for Cottonwood. It was
a beautiful drive but our goal was to continue on to the mining towns of
Clarkdale and Jerome. These were booming towns during the early 1900’s. The mines were owned by W.A. Clark and along
with another one of his mines in Montana produced the majority of cooper in
this country.
Mining Town of Jerome
We stopped
for lunch at a cute Mexican Restaurant in Clarkdale than continued on our way
through the town of Yarnell, a quirky little hippy town in an unusually
beautiful mountain setting with very interesting shopping opportunities Chris
would definitely love to go back. We then continued on through Congress, an old
gold mining ghost town then Wickenberg and back to Lake Pleasant. It was a long
day of driving but well worth it.
View of Pleasant Lake from the visitors center
