Jerome. A mining town on the side of a mountain.

On Wednesday we checked out a few RV Parks for a stop next year.   We have found that we are usually off seeing the sights and seldom use the facilities of the RV Park.  The only exception was our stay at Gold Canyon and we were there for 2 months so some Yoga, Pickleball and workouts in the Gym were a nice change from hiking and sightseeing.

Of the parks we checked out the Zane Grey Park was probably the best and at $450 p/m much more reasonable than the full Snowbird parks at about $800 p/m.

We finished off the day with a walk down the old main street of Cottonwood which was quite scenic, lots shops and a nice restaurant for a late lunch.  This area also has a number of Vineyards and they sponsor Wine Tasting shops in each of these little towns.  We will have to visit a few next next time.  

Just a few miles past the town of Cottonwood is Jerome.  Its a copper mining town that was built at the turn of the last century and reached its peak in the early 1900's.  Today it has a population of 500, mostly servicing tourists, but at its peak its population was 15000.

It is built quite literally into the side of the mountain and after a steep winding drive we reached the townsite.  The elevation was over 7000 ft which was about 2000 ft above the valley below.

Below is the Verde valley and the San Francisco peaks in the distance.  Not sure about the name as the mountains are close to Flagstaff and not San Francisco.
 

You can see the houses, including a beautiful hotel at the top, centre of the picture.  All built into the mountain.  The streets and highway, 89A, wind through the town up and over the mountain.  The front of the buildings are at street level and anchored into rock but the backs sit on stilts.  Looks a little precarious however they have been there for over a hundred years.  Bet they check regularly for termites.

The cement plant in the lower part of the picture is in the valley and just outside of Clarkdale, another small town on Highway 89A.

One of them Tree Huggers

 So this is how the miners of the day got to work.  They were lowered down the mining shaft in this contraption suspended by a steel cable to a large winch.  This shaft was 1900 feet down.  The empire state building is about 1200 ft.

This is downtown Jerome.  There are so many shops, restaurants and bars that one could spend a few days here to see it all.
The building below was originally a brothel.  

Some of the houses were quite lovely.  Others you felt that if you just stood there a little longer it would fall 2000 feet into the valley below.

Back in our campsite treeing this little fella has be Charli's favourite activity.

Here is our campsite.  If we could park the truck somewhere else it would be a nice site but when sitting in our chairs about all you can see is the side of the truck or the side of the trailer.  If you walk to the street the views are actually pretty good.
I don't know why but I had a terrible time backing into this site.  Took me a number of tries to get the correct line.

Here is the clubhouse which contains the laundry, gym (which I haven't visited) library and showers as well as a common room and a small pool outside.  

Friday and Saturday we have some chores to do; i.e. laundry, draining tanks.  Will also do some reading and take in the Pecan and Wine Tasting festival in Camp Verde on Saturday.  Sunday we leave for 4 days at the Grand Canyon and will report from there providing we can find some Wifi.  Then we are off to Page for 3 days and after that the long drive back home.

Later.