Sunday morning, I got up pretty early (as I was still on Eastern time!!) and set off towards Sedona. Instead of taking the boring Interstate route, I decided to take a ride through the Tonto National Forest. It was just amazing how quick the landscape and temperature changed once you got out of the “Valley of the Sun”. I drove through parts of TNF that still had SNOW ON THE GROUND (it was 90+ in Phoenix the day before).
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The cliff dwellings around Montezuma Castle were constructed around 700 AD and were occupied for 700 years. These cliff dwellings were discovered around 1860 and mistakenly named for the Aztec emperor – as it turns out, the Aztecs never made it out of Mexico!
This particular “condo building” is 5 stories and has about 20 rooms. I wondered how they got up on the cliff – they had ladders!
Below is an additional dwelling on the site that is in ruins.
From Camp Verde, it was off to the cute little hillside town of Jerome (current population: 350). Jerome was an old mining town (copper & silver) that was a hotbed for gambling and prostitution during it’s glory days. The town was most prosperous during the Roaring 20′s, with a population around 15,000. Then there was this thing called the Great Depression, which hit the mines pretty hard. Around 1953 the last mine was closed and Jerome essentially became a ghost town (population: 50). Today, Jerome is a great little tourist destination, as the town is filled with artists, galleries, shops, and a few bars. If you ever find yourself in Sedona, I highly recommend that you find a day to spend in Jerome.
I found this beauty parked outside of the Hotel Connor.
He built it himself!
