We were thinking about taking the 4-hour Verde Canyon Railroad WildernessTrain ride but it was all sold out for today, so we headed to Jerome, AZ. At one time a booming copper mining town, it became a ghost town when the mine was depleted, but now is home to about 500 residents. Perched on the side of a mountain with switchbacking streets, some of the homes look a little precarious with the steeply sloping hillside for a backyard. We walked downtown, and we also learned some Jerome history at the museum in the Douglas Mansion which is part of Jerome State Historic Park.
We stopped at a cute 50's style diner in Clarkdale for lunch and checked out Larry's " two acre's of antiques" next door.
We are spending the night in the Payson Walmart parking lot:) G'Night!
Update: Well, it's Friday morning and we did NOT have an uneventful night. I woke up during the night (about 12:30am) and smelled propane gas. We have been having problems for several days. It started out with an occasional elusive whiff of what we thought might be gas and turned into a definite smell of gas a couple of times upon entering the camper. We eliminated the hot water heater and the furnace by not using them at all, so that left the stove and rerigerator as possible culprits. A few days ago Mark took the top off the stove and thought he fixed the problem. A connection was loose. He couldn't tighten it enough with the tools he had, so we also stuffed a wad of tin foil under the pipe to keep it stationary. It seemed to fix the problem for a couple of days and then we noticed a few whiffs again. Mark turned off the gas at the tank and tried to run the refrigerator on the battery alone, but when we went to bed last night, the refrigerator started beeping and turned off. Mark turned the gas back on and we didn't smell anything so we went to sleep. Well, as I said, a few hours later I awoke to a strong smell of gas. We opened all the windows, got dressed, turned off the gas, and Mark disassembled the stovetop again. He needed a longer screw driver to finish the job properly so fortunately we could just walk into the Walmart in the middle of the night to buy one! Mark tightened up everything he could tighten and we went back to bed with all the windows open --just in case. This morning we used the stove to heat water to wash dishes and everything seems fine . . . So hopefully it's fixed and we won't get asphixiated or go up in a fireball. . . That would be bad.
We're heading down the Apache Trail today and a stretch of 22 miles, sometimes one-lane, dirt mountain road -- We'll let you know how THAT goes . . .
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| Douglas Mansion (museum) |
From there we headed to Montezuma Castle National Monument on Beaver Creek near the town of Camp Verde. Montezuma Castle is a five-story, 20-room dwelling built by the Sinagua in a cliff recess about 100 feet above the valley floor.
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park was our next stop. We drove down a winding mountain road with a 14% grade to reach this very pretty spot in a small green valley surrounded with pine trees. We found that the park closes at 5pm. Since we arrived at 4pm, we didn't have much time to explore before the gates would be locked. We checked out the four viewing spots of what is "believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world". I would have liked to linger, but it appeared that the rangers were anxious to get home on time:)
Too bad the park didn't include a campground!
Update: Well, it's Friday morning and we did NOT have an uneventful night. I woke up during the night (about 12:30am) and smelled propane gas. We have been having problems for several days. It started out with an occasional elusive whiff of what we thought might be gas and turned into a definite smell of gas a couple of times upon entering the camper. We eliminated the hot water heater and the furnace by not using them at all, so that left the stove and rerigerator as possible culprits. A few days ago Mark took the top off the stove and thought he fixed the problem. A connection was loose. He couldn't tighten it enough with the tools he had, so we also stuffed a wad of tin foil under the pipe to keep it stationary. It seemed to fix the problem for a couple of days and then we noticed a few whiffs again. Mark turned off the gas at the tank and tried to run the refrigerator on the battery alone, but when we went to bed last night, the refrigerator started beeping and turned off. Mark turned the gas back on and we didn't smell anything so we went to sleep. Well, as I said, a few hours later I awoke to a strong smell of gas. We opened all the windows, got dressed, turned off the gas, and Mark disassembled the stovetop again. He needed a longer screw driver to finish the job properly so fortunately we could just walk into the Walmart in the middle of the night to buy one! Mark tightened up everything he could tighten and we went back to bed with all the windows open --just in case. This morning we used the stove to heat water to wash dishes and everything seems fine . . . So hopefully it's fixed and we won't get asphixiated or go up in a fireball. . . That would be bad.
We're heading down the Apache Trail today and a stretch of 22 miles, sometimes one-lane, dirt mountain road -- We'll let you know how THAT goes . . .
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Hope he got the gas leak fixed for good.
ReplyDeleteHow in the world did the Sinagua get up in the mountain to build/stay/live in that castle? Was there a way you could tour the inside? Did some Sinagua live there full time? Those houses in the rocks are so interesting!
I just published another post today that refers to the gas leak . . . So far so good except for some problems with the alarm!
DeleteWe are fascinated with the cliff dwellings, too. We could not go inside this one. Alot of them don't allow it anymore because of vandalism and the attempt to preserve them. They believe the Sinagua had a ladder from the canyon floor to the bottom level of the dwelling and then inside ladders that went from one story into the next through holes in the ceilings. This dwelling wasn't as far up the canyon wall as some we have seen!
Hey Heidi, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Its fun for us to get a response to what we've written :)
DeleteSure. :) I always like getting comments on my blog too.
DeleteBut, just so you know, most people can't comment on your blog unless they have an account. I was sometimes successful commenting as an "anonymous" person (before I had my own blog), but for some reason I ran into trouble at times when I'd try to comment and would end up just not commenting instead of trying to figure it out.
Your photos of Jerome remind me a lot of Eureka Springs, AK, another town built on a steep hillside.
ReplyDelete