Frog Rock & Yarnell, AZ

Gerry and I decided to take a ride around Congress, AZ to check out the sights.  We've been here a couple of times and have seen most of what is here, so it was just a short ride.  

We stopped at Nichol's West restaurant for an early dinner.  We wound up being seated in a small area like a hallway.  Gerry got her shrimp tacos and I had the beef ones.  We enjoyed them and our beer.  It was nice and quiet there until the regular dinner crowd began pouring in about 45 minutes after we got there.  Great timing on our part and we beat a hasty exit.

Next stop was to check out Frog Rock on the outskirts of town.  There are a couple stories out there about why the rock was painted and by whom.  One was that an old prospector painted the rock and the other more likely story was an early woman settler noticed the rock formation looked like a frog and painted it first in 1928.  It's been kept up ever since then by the local townfolks of Congress.  It really does look like a frog, even though it weighs around 60 tons.  In any case it is a neat idea and really stands out as you drive north on RT 89 out of Congress.

 Now Texans have tall tales, but I don't think they can beat the size of the spurs at an intersection on Rt 93 on the way to Wickenburg, AZ.  They are definitely the largest set of spurs I have ever seen and would take some big boots to straps them on to.

We also drove up to Yarnell, AZ which is a small town on the way to Prescott, AZ.  It is a touristy town that seems to be hanging on by a thread, but is a pretty place to live.

Yarnell's other claim to fame is the Yarnell Hill Fire, a wildfire near Yarnell, ignited by lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 City of Prescott firefighters, members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. The wildfire was fully contained by July 10, 2013.

This event resulted in the highest wild land firefighter death toll in the United States since the 1933 Griffith Park Fire killed 29 firefighters, and the highest death toll from any U.S. wildfire since the 1991 East Bay Hills fire killed 25 people. It is the 6th deadliest American firefighter disaster overall and the deadliest wildfire ever in Arizona. 

California Poppy

It was very quiet there on a Sunday afternoon with only a few cars on the road and even fewer people in view.  There were a number of restaurants and touristy places alongside of the road but we didn't stop at any of them.  Maybe next time.

That was our exciting Sunday, how was yours?