Arizona--Seligman to Jerome
Arizona
is a beautiful state. Rich and I left the Grand Canyon ( It deserves it's own
page.) and found our way wandering slowly south. We saw the sign for Rte 66 and
couldn't resist following it for a while. We were driving southeast when we happened
upon Seligman. We were amazed at the old art deco buildings and stopped to take
these pictures. It was pure delight to see so much color and activity in a one
block area, in the middle of so much desert. We picked up our first "Rte.
66" hot plate in the campy little gift shop there.
Next
stop was Williams, AZ, "Gateway to the Grand Canyon. Williams
is located in the heart of the Kaibab National Forest at an elevation of 6,770
feet. We saw lots of motels and more freight trains than you can imagine. We tried
counting the railroad cars, but each train had 75-100 cars each. We missed Rte
89 south, but took a left and followed a beautiful road down to the Verde River.
The ride through the mountains
to Jerome was spectacular if not a little scary. The road hugs the side of the
mountain, with few if any guardrails. Jerome is a
very
old mining town, now turned into an artist colony. Lots of B&Bs, art galleries
and specialty shops.
.
The houses are literally hanging off the side
of the mountain. After the copper mines closed the town was close to being a genuine
ghost town. The revival has been amazing. As we were leaving Jerome, we saw this
incredible sunset.
