Sedona & the Slide Forest Fire

It is hard to believe that the Slide forest fire is only 30 miles from us and nobody around here seems to know it's there.  The winds have driven the fire even further north along both sides of US 89A and into some very rough countryside.  We have been on that road a few times and loved the drive and view.  In October of 2012 we toured the area and managed to get some pictures.  The ones shown below will give you an idea of how rough the terrain is there.  

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to fight this fire from the ground?  So far they are fighting by a delaying action and dumping thousands of gallons of water and repellant utilizing helicopters and airplanes.  When the wind exceeds 35mph they do not drop the liquids since it isn't as effective when it is dispersed over a large area.

We had some routine errands to run today and drove over to Cottonwood, AZ to Fry's, Home Depot and Walmart.  Cottonwood has a number of big box stores and numerous other businesses.  It seems to be the big shopping destination for this part of the country.

On the way back to the motorhome we stopped to check out the Thousands Trails RV park here in the area.  I got diverted to find a geocache and then checked out a local winery that was closed.  Looks like a trip to the winery is on tap for this weekend.   The TT Rv park looked nice, but some of the sites were double sites and very close together.  They have a restaurant in the park and the public is invited to eat there.  Maybe lunch after the winery is in the works, also.

We are enjoying the beautiful weather here and the forecast is for more of the same.  Possibly some rain on Sunday night and Monday, but that would be fine with us.  Maybe we can get a free wash job courtesy of mother nature.  

That was our day, how was yours?

Prescott, AZ

We picked Camp Verde as a base to check out some of the towns nearby including Prescott, Jerome, Sedona & Flagstaff.   Today was Prescott's turn for us to check out and we packed some cold water in the car and hit the road.  We headed down I-17 to Rt 169 and skooted over to Prescott.

The drive there was very interesting even in spite of how brown the fields were.  There is a certain beauty to the harshness and barrenness of the landscape.  

We combined sightseeing with some geocaching and the first geocache led us to a small park as you enter Prescott.  There is a major intersection near the park and it's easy to overlook the park, but the GPS directed us there.  There is a statue located there showing some of the early settlers.   The other structure is dedicated to members of the US Armed forces who served our country.  The park stands out in another way since it has beautiful grass, which isn't something you see out here all the time.

Early Settler Statue

  
We drove around the downtown area including Whiskey Row and found it very interesting.  There are a number of beautiful homes on Nob hill including "The Goldwater House" which was built in 1894 by Henry Goldwater who was an uncle of Barry Goldwater.  The Goldwater brothers founded a mercantile company and were prominent businessmen of Arizona for almost a century.  The home now is a vacation rental unit.

The Goldwater House - 1894

One cache was located next to the old Sante Fe Railroad depot in downtown Prescott.  The old structure has been restored and is now an office building attached to a shopping center.  They were working on the building when we were there and couldn't see inside of it, but it was a really interesting from the outside.

Old Sante Fe railroad depot

Prescott is an interesting town and built on the numerous hills and mountains in the area.  I don't think there is a single spot other than local football fields that are level for more than 120 yards.  It is also a mile high and combine that with hills, it must be difficult to walk around a lot.  At least it is for old people like us.

We decided to return to our campsite by driving through Jerome, AZ.   As we were leaving Prescott, we drove by Watson Lake just north of town.  It is a crystal clear lake and has a bright blue sheen to it.  Beautiful lakes like this really stand out in the desert.

Watson Lake

Just up the road from the lake was an area called Granite Dells with huge boulders piled on top of each other.  There was a narrow road through the area and we took a side trip to view the boulders up close and personal.   Areas like this interest both of us very much and we can't pass them up.

Granite Dells

There was an area called The Canyons with a locked gate just down the road from the Dells that had a cache near the front gate.  Since we couldn't get in to purchase a vacation home there, we just took a picture from the entrance.  They closed the gate about 15 minutes before we arrived there - darn it.

 

The Canyon

This area was a favorite of old time Cowboy actor Tom Mix and he filmed many westerns in this area with the granite boulders as back drops.  Now I have to look up his old films and see if I recognize any of the area in his films.

 Since it was getting late and we had a long ways to go, we reluctantly had to leave Prescott and head back to the campground via Jerome, AZ.   We have a day trip planned for Jerome & Sedona for Thursday, but since we had to drive through there to get back, we took a few photos.  It was almost dark as we arrived and captured this photo as we entered the town.

Jerome at sunset

 We stopped at a Strombolli's restaurant in Cottonwood on the way home.  Gerry wanted some Italian food for a change and we used the GPS to find an Italian restaurant.  The food was plentiful and very good.  I ordered a half pitcher of Rolling Rock beer that was priced at $3.50 which was a great price for 2 1/2 glasses of beer.  It had a great taste, so that made it even better.

Oh, btw, we found 9 geocaches and had a lot of fun with the search.  The nice thing about geocaching is finding out of the way places that you wouldn't normally see in an area.  Try it, you will like it.

That was our day, how was yours? 

Camp Verde, AZ

Fort Verde State Historic Park in the town of Camp Verde, Arizona is a small park that attempts to preserve parts of the Apache Wars-era fort as it appeared in the 1880s. The park was established in 1970 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places a year later.
Settlers in the mid-19th century near the Verde River grew corn and other crops with the prospect of getting good prices from nearby Prescott, which was the territorial capital, and from nearby miners. The rapid increase in population for the mining economy disrupted the hunting and gathering environments of the local native American tribes, the Dilzhe'e Apache and Yavapai. In turn, they raided the farmers' crops for food.
The farmers requested military protection from the United States Army and, in 1865, although Arizona was still only a territory, the infantry arrived. They set up a several posts over the next few years:

• 1865, a small camp five miles (8 km) south of what is today Camp Verde.
• 1866-1871, Camp Lincoln, a mile north of today's Fort Verde.
• 1871-1873, Camp Verde, built gradually from 1871 to 1873.
• 1879, Camp Verde renamed Fort Verde
• 1891, Fort Verde abandoned
• 1899, sold at public auction

After approximately 1,500 local natives were placed on a reservation by 1872, the army's role changed from protecting the settlers to ensuring that the Indians stayed on the reservation. The last major military engagement with uprising natives took place in 1882 at the Battle of Big Dry Wash.
The fort was never enclosed by walls or stockades and it never saw fighting on site. At its height, it consisted of twenty-two buildings, only four of which survived until 1956, when local citizens created a small museum in the administration building. They later donated the buildings and ten acres  as a State Park.

Some of the buildings were built with pice, which is large adobe slabs cast within wooden frames rather than assembled from the more familiar individual adobe bricks.

Doctor's house at Fort Verde

I copied the above piece from wikipieda rather than explain it all in my own words.  The first photo is a pano of two photos we took of two of the remaining buildings left at Fort Verde.  The second photo is of the doctors house at the fort.  The quality of Army doctors varied, some had almost no formal training, others were medical school graduates. With few effective medicines their job was a difficult one. All together, 27 doctors served at Ft.Verde. Among the more notable were Dr. Edward Palmer, Dr. Elliot Coues, and Dr. Edgar Mearns.  They lived very well compared to the enlisted men, however having a doctor was a necessity due to the dangers of being stationed here.

 We were first here in 1966, but I don't remember the buildings or the fort.  

There is an old jail next to the fort and it looked like it wouldn't have been a pleasant place to spend much time.  It does get hot out here and with no ventilation it must have been terrible to be there.  It is an interesting looking old building and they have it setup inside to represent how it looked 125 years ago.

  
There is a statue on main street representing a soldier who would have been at Fort Verde.

We took some time out to do some geocaching and found three fairly quickly.  The last geocache had a tarantula about the size of a half dollar residing there and scurried away when my hand got too close to it.  I was very thankful that it chose to avoid a confrontation with me.  Most geocaches out here have a disclaimer warning you to watch out for snakes and spiders.  Now I see what they mean.

We had a nice time looking around the town and surrounding area and plan on going to Cottonwood & Sedona on Sunday.  Maybe there will be a wine festival or something like that going on.