Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Jerome

(Cottonwood, AZ) You may recall a week or two ago, I took a picture from the park here of a city up on the side of a hill with a big "J" on the hill. That is the city of Jerome.

Mike really wanted to drive to Jerome as it's a unique little town and isn't that long a drive. So he took the dogs out at various times throughout the day to get them a little exercise. Then late in the afternoon we drove up to Jerome. We did most of our sightseeing from the car as my legs are giving me more trouble by the day.

The road through Jerome is really narrow and curvy. I'll start our tour from the top. After you drive to the top of Jerome you must go another mile or so before there is a spot where you can turn around. This is the view down the narrow canyon from the turn around.

Jerome was a very famous copper mining town, however now it is just a tourist attraction and is home to various types of artists. If you look just to the right of the white building you can see some gray structures - that is the old mine.

There are many art/photography galleries and of course some antique shops. I think everything in this town is antique. Most if not all of the homes look like they were built in the late 1890's or early 1900's. And they are all built on rock cliffs held up by big posts stuck into the rock. I'm not afraid of heights but these houses looked really rickety and a little too scary for me to live in for sure.

The views however were very pretty. The white building in the foreground is the historical museum, the tall gray structure is part of the old mine, and the mountains you see in the distance with a little remaining snow are the San Francisco Peaks.

This shot is taken from the same vantage point but is looking more to the right. I suppose I could have worked hard and made is a panoramic picture but that just seems like way too much work - so you can just use your brain.

There are two reasons for the following picture. The new looking building that you see is the Grand Hotel - by far the newest building in town. I guess the restaurant in the hotel is really good. You have to have reservations to get in...a lot of the earthdog competitors from last weekend went there to eat after the seminar on Friday. Needless to say, we didn't go.

The second purpose of this picture is to show you the State Park where we are living. Just over the red roofed building on the right, you can see a lot of green trees. Follow those trees straight back to where the trees meet the brown hills. We're on the edge of the green trees. The brown hills are where Mike takes the dogs to hike off leash. As you can see they have miles and miles of nothing where they can hike and be all by themselves.

Contrary to many people, Mike and I think antique stores are really just junk stores. I don't know...you make up your own mind. Here is the outside of an antique store in Jerome. Of course it's only what we could see from the outside as we didn't go in. Now why this is still left? I just don't know...doesn't everyone need one of these?