Travel Across US: Week 5 – Prescott Loop

September 17^th – September 23^rd 2012

This was somewhat week off for us. We did not feel like doing much (J. obviously worked her three days). Sometimes, things just have to get slower and more normal. We needed to catch up on few things as well. It happened.

On Wednesday, we took a drive to Prescott. We first drove to Sedona; J. was talking about apple season and cider, when I saw sign along the road:

It was just before Sedona (the town is like tourist’s trap), sadly. We went to small café/store, where we discovered, how expensive the cider was (we left empty handed). There was as well store with Indian jewelry. J. was checking nice looking earrings (price tag almost 1000 dollars). We again left empty handed. The weather (compared to Flagstaff) was significantly warmer. This time, we just drove through Sedona.

We stopped in Cottonwood (small town on the way to Prescott). It was pretty warm and sunny. We walked the main street (went to two stores) and left. It was nice, but nothing special. Next to this town, there was Tuzigoot National Monument.

Reconstructed (partly) settlement from old times. It was interesting, but we already seen many similar sites, some of them were breath taking, so this was rather lost it. Sorry. I can see how it would be really interesting and appealing for someone just visiting few sites, but we already saw too much.

We continued on road 89A (same road from Flagstaff) towards Jerome. There were many churches along the way. Otherwise very similar landscape as we got used to. Jerome used to be mining town (transformed into tourist town now days). As small as it was (it is build on the side of hill), it had pretty big main streets (as I said tourist town). We got off the car and walked around for a bit. It was actually interesting.

I liked this sign and site:

Next to the town (and next to the state park) was small site, which we visited. It was formal mining shaft with few artifacts around.

The hole in the ground had small structure around it and was covered with the glass. It was really interesting to look down. The mine was relatively small (and old), so the opening was probably 4x4 feet.

We left Jerome and started driving uphill. We discovered, that we had to cross some type of hills, so we had to drive curvy road for many miles.

Prescott. We stopped by visitor’s center and walked along Whiskey Row (apparently oldest part of town, formally known for bars and saloons). It was not really special.

It was as well mid afternoon and we were getting tired. We stopped by two stores (Trader Joe’s and Costco) to get some groceries. After that, we were heading back home.