TPThursday: A Vermilion Vignette

The scenery had been stunning in its expansive, empty way; the roadways long and lonesome as the High Plains Drifters (our nom de blog for the next few weeks) made our way south to Arizona on this Western Winter Road Trip.

Having crossed our snow-dusted 3,022-foot Snoqualmie Pass in Washington on a gray Thanksgiving morning, we were delighted to find  elevations further south, like the Le Fevre Overlook at 6,700-feet, to be shirt-sleeve warm and sunny.

In keeping with our travel style, we followed a road less traveled  on this segment of our trip. It was Highway 89A, from St. George, Utah a route that wound its way through northern Arizona (instead of southern Utah) through the rather sparsely- forested Kaibab National Forest.



We had no expectations – no ‘must see’ places – for the day, only a plan to reach Prescott, Arizona before sunset. And it is those kind of days, we’ve found with travel, when the magic happens.

A roadside overlook just outside this forested land is where we had our introduction to the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, a mind-boggling vast area of some 293,000 acres of plateaus, canyons and cliffs. Two Native American ladies were some distance away quietly setting up tables to sell artwork and jewelry. The silence, the absolute silence and the view. . .I still struggle to find the words to describe that moment and its magic:

For miles the roadway cut through that ‘valley floor’ itself an elevation of 5,000 feet, with those cinnabar cliffs towering from  3,100 – 6,500-feet above us.

We were the only travelers on this stretch of road for some time and could only imagine what it had been like for Sharlot Hall (1870-1943), a journalist, poet and the Historian of the Arizona Territory as she traveled this same area by horse-drawn wagons some hundred years ago.

The Vermilion Cliffs are an outdoor enthusiasts playground – hiking trails abound.  Next time, we’ll allow ourselves some time to stop and explore the area.  We passed two character-looking mom-and-pop places that offered overnight accommodations:  Lee’s Ferry Lodge and Marble Canyon Lodge.

If You Go:
The Vermilion Cliffs are bounded on the east by Glen Canyon National Recreation area, on the west by Kaibab National Forest, to the north by the Utah border and to the south, 89A (389 if coming from Fredonia).

Services are limited between St. George, Utah and Fredonia, Arizona; the bookend cities of this loop. However, there’s is a service station and convenience store at Pipe Springs, about 15 miles west of Fredonia.

The Paiute Indians have opened a museum across the road from the service station at Pipe Springs National Monument. Allow some time to visit it, the historic fort and cabins.

You can learn more about the woman I mentioned at the Sharlot Hall Museum, 415 W. Gurley, Prescott, AZ. (In 1927 she signed a contract to house her collection of history and memorabilia in the building that had in 1864 been the Governor’s Mansion.)

That’s it for today’s Travel Photo Thursday. Be sure to visit Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos.

And for those who missed the first two segments of High Plains Drifter’s Winter Road trip, you might be interested in:
* A Thanksgiving Jackpot
* A Long Lonesome Road: To Stop or Not
Hope you’ll come back Saturday when I’ll tell you what “P.C.” means in Arizona!

High Plains Drifters: A Thanksgiving Jackpot

The High Plains Drifters (our Southwestern nom de blog) brought the song lyrics, “Over the river and through the woods. . .” to life on Thanksgiving morning. 



Tossing aside the traditional holiday falderal, we set out – for the first time ever - on a winter road trip. We headed for America’s Southwest on a 1,628 mile route that would take us from Washington State, across Oregon and a tip of Idaho, into Nevada, Utah and to our destination, Arizona.

Winter road trips through this area of the country require bi-polar packing: flip-flops, shorts, and suntan lotion in the suitcases that sit next to tire chains, snow boots, gloves and window scrapers in the car’s trunk.

We were prepared for winter’s potentially worst driving conditions and were pleasantly surprised to find the only ‘snowy conditions’ were on the trees and roadside on Washington’s Snoqualmie Pass (top photo).

It was sunshine and blue skies as we crossed the Columbia River and entered Oregon country.



Crossing Oregon’s Blue Mountains (this photo at the summit) was a snap. Traveling on Thanksgiving Day made for virtually no traffic. . .we did pass a group of wild turkeys standing along the roadside, showing off, we think,  for having avoided the platter for another year.

Our route through central Oregon was flanked with the Wallowa Mountain range in the distance to our left and the Blue Mountains (pictured) to our right.

Day 1: Was a bottom-buster:  11 hours and 693 miles.  Subsequent days we allowed ourselves a bit more sightseeing, fewer miles and less hours in the car. 

We reached our destination: Jackpot, Nevada – a wide spot in the road just south of the Idaho border, with four casinos, three hotels and a service station at 6:45 p.m. our time; 7:45 p.m. by the Mountain Time they follow here.The casino/hotel we’d hoped to stay in was sold out – luckily the place across the street, Barton’s Club 93  had rooms ($57 a night)and food. 




We could have had the traditional turkey either as a plated meal or from the buffet.  But we’d already thrown tradition aside. . .

. . . so we opted to hit the Thanksgiving Jackpot with chicken fried steak platters!

Hope you’ll come back for Day II of the winter road trip – we’ll be leaving early tomorrow so pack your bag and join us!

TPThursday: The Wickedest Town in the West

Wickedest? So they say.
Ghosts among its residents? So they claim.
A ‘Must See’ for Arizona travelers? Without a doubt!


Just 100 miles from Phoenix, Arizona we hit the mother lode of tourist stops: Jerome, the old copper mining town on the slope of Cleopatra Hill. 

Remnants of those good old mining days are visible along the twisty, turning drive that leads to the tiny town - like the slag heap below:



In its heyday – 15,000 residents in the 1920’s – Jerome was Arizona’s fourth largest city.  Today’s population is 445 (not sure if that includes the ghosts) and its pay load is tourism.  It’s a paranormal paradise for those of that persuasion.

And this welcoming little place, according to their tourism folks, was once, ‘the wickedest town in the west’.



Souvenir shops, restaurants, art galleries, B and B’s and hotels are housed in restored buildings. And some buildings like the old theatre simply offer an open door to imagination: What was it like in its heyday?

Other buildings simply gave way to the passing of time.

Jerome began as a frontier tent city in the late 1880’s.  The copper mine that gave it life was the largest in Arizona, at one time producing three million tons a month.

The last mine shut down in  1953.







We’d considered staying at -- and perhaps ghost hunting -- at the Jerome Grand Hotel.  It’s prominent profile towers above the town and can be seen for miles. It’s address – no joke - Hill Street. Guests can join in “Ghost Hunting” tours ($20 per person)  on selected week day evenings.  Participants are taken into ‘off limits areas’ of the hotel and are provided ghost hunting equipment as part of the hotel’s efforts to document its paranormal activities.

The hotel is housed in a 5-story Spanish Mission style building that when built in 1926 was the United Verde Hospital. It was considered the most modern hospital of its time, serving all of Northern Arizona. The hospital closed in the 1950’s and remained vacant (well, aside from the ghosts, I guess) until 1996 when renovation began. It opened as a hotel in 1996.  It’s restaurant, The Asylum, has the sign above posted at its entry.



We’d also considered staying at another place on Hill Street, near the old hospital, The Surgeon’s House Bed and Breakfast. It was built for the hospital’s Chief Surgeon and has been on the National Historic Register since 1966.

One reason we didn’t stay in this gem of a town (and are kicking ourselves for not doing so now) was our concern that it might be a bit dead – no pun intended – when the day trippers left and stores closed. 

We shouldn’t have worried. The number of restaurants and watering holes alone would have kept us busy hiking up and down the steep streets bar hopping.

Or we could have taken in a movie at the 1918 Liberty Theatre, the oldest operating silent movie theatre in Arizona.  They now show silent  films and ‘talkies’  for $3 a person.




The road to Jerome is a paved highway, Arizona 89A, that turns and twists up over the 7,000 foot summit of Mingus Mountain before looping through Jerome on its way to the valley floor.  If you don’t like road trips or heights this isn’t for you, but if you want to take a trip back into America’s Wild West, this place shouldn’t be missed.

For more information: www.jeromechamber.com or www.azjerome.com

This is TravelnWrite’s contribution to Travel Photo Thursday. To take a few more photographic journey’s click on Budget Travelers Sandbox.  If this is your first visit here, thanks for stopping by. Come back again – soon!

Ridin’ the Rails in Arizona’s Verde Canyon

“It’s not the Destination, it’s the Journey”  they told us as we began our afternoon aboard Arizona’s Verde Canyon Railroad. 

They were right.

The vast open spaces that gave way to sheer canyon walls towering above us, the winding river. . . well, what we had feared might be a touristy outing turned out to be one of the best travel excursions we’ve ever taken in our three decades of travel. 



Two FP7 locomotives – and two of only 10 remaining in North America -- are the horse power for the renovated vintage passenger cars. We chose coach class (and saved more buying at the AAA discount price) although we could have opted for First Class with a glass of champagne or hired the caboose all for ourselves. (All were air-conditioned.)



We’d planned to spend just a portion of the trip in the open-air viewing car but within minutes of pulling out of the station we knew we weren’t going inside . . .the views were so breath-taking we couldn’t tear ourselves away from that railing  – we stood the entire way, moving from side to side trying to see it all. (Yes, it was in the 90’s that day but the viewing cars had canvas covers.)



We traveled along the winding Verde River (verde; ‘green’ in Spanish) from Clarksdale, a one-time mining town, to what was once a train stop – Perkinsville - on the line that served this mining area in north-central Arizona. We passed mountains of slag, the remnants of those bygone mining days as well as cliff dwellings of the Sinagua Indians believed to date back to 600 B.C.



We passed through a 680-foot manmade tunnel and didn’t realize until we came out the other side, just how small that opening was: this is the car behind us as it emerged from the tunnel.



Cliffs towered above us and beside us, sometimes so close we could have touched them as we passed.



The Verde River Canyon was such an enchanting place that we want to do this trip again – and highly recommend it to those who find themselves in the area. (Clarksdale is between Sedona and Prescott). In addition to the daily afternoon trips, they have special holiday excursions and in the summer when the moon is full, or when it's not - under starry skies -- night-time wine tasting trips.  I can’t imagine anything more magical sounding than that. Can you?

I took dozens of photos but will stop here and encourage you to visit other destinations featured this week on Travel Photo Thursday hosted by Budget Travelers Sandbox.  For those wanting more information on Verde Canyon Railroad, schedule and prices, click the link in the opening paragraph to access their website.

TPThursday: A Sonoran Spring

The temperature hovers at 100-degrees, the sky is a cloudless blue.  We’ve been in Arizona for just a bit more than two weeks; we now understand its most apt nickname of “Arid Zona”.

A highlight of our time here  has been discovering the beauty of a Sonoran Spring:
 

The local newspaper, The Arizona Republic,  has a daily column that features a historical highpoint of the date, a chuckle for the day and also a prayer.  Today’s prayer couldn’t have been more appropriate for this post: “Lord, We thank you for the beauty that surrounds us. Amen.”



This barrel cactus is one of our favorites.



These delicate blooms adorned for several days the thorniest of cacti outside our unit at the Four Seasons Scottsdale.



It doesn’t require any strenuous hikes into the desert to find these beauties, most of the photos were taken either along roadsides outside Scottsdale or near parking lots.



Next week’s posts will include a garden tour with the Landscape Supervisor for the Four Seasons Scottsdale and some road trips in north central “Arid Zona”.  Today is TPThursday so head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for other shots from around the world.

High Plains Drifters, Mad Dogs and Englishmen

June 2012 arrived Friday in Phoenix/Scottsdale with a sizzle:  113-degrees was the prediction ~ it felt hotter. Like a sucker-punch-to-the-stomach-hot.

We like hot, dry climates. And that is good, because that’s what we’ve had since arriving in the Valley of the Sun.

Fellow travel blogger, Dick Jordan, (whose Tales Told From the Road is worth a visit) reminded us that there’s a reason for the saying, “Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen travel to ‘Arid Zona’ between baseball’s spring training camps and Thanksgiving” and that reason is the weather.

We arrived during a ‘cold spell’ by locals’ standards. It was 89-degrees. The heat kept rising until Friday and is now back to a more comfortable ‘hovering at 100 or so degrees’.

Don’t be put off by the weather report though, because mornings and late afternoons are great for poolside lazing.

We are loving “Arid Zona” and if you haven’t yet planned a summer getaway give some thought to heading to America’s Southwest. Hotels are offering some great deals (and rooms are air conditioned). Those resorts, like the Four Seasons Scottsdale where we are this week, are offering some great deals in their spas – also air-conditioned paradises. (That’s a photo of the Four Seasons pool with Pinnacle Peak in the background.)

If that isn’t enough to bring you here, then let me tell you there is no better reason to sip a margarita than to cool yourself after a day in the sun.  We’ve been on a quest for the perfect one since arriving in the state – we’ll tell you where to find ‘em in a future post.

(These tasty treats were consumed in Prescott, AZ right after we hit town.)

Right now, I’m headin’ off to quench my thirst. . .again!

High Plains Drifters and Sherman our Tank

There is something about us and rental cars in Arizona. . .

Remember Ol’ Orange from last spring? We felt as if we were in a Sunkist citrus commercial as we buzzed through the Valley of the Sun in a burnt navel orange.
 
Then there was that little tin tuna can we drove for a week last fall – the one that cost us $600 because we missed the small print about a one-way drop charge.

So, it should be no surprise when I introduce you to Sherman, (short for Sherman the Tank) our wheels for this spring’s Arizona road trip:




Sherman, a Mercury Marquis, is a big ol’ boy. So big that I sit on towels that I take from the room so that I can see out the front. . .that’s one big ol’ stretch of hood you might notice.  Joel, who operates this tank, has compared some maneuvers to how it might be steering a cruise ship.

We got a great rate on a small compact car for our 16 days here. Advantage price: $385. But they didn’t have a compact for us and after we turned down their offers to pay a bit more for a bigger car, they simply told us they were upgrading us at no charge. End result? Sherman.

The travel tip with this story is: sometimes bigger isn’t better even if it is free.

On the flip side: if for some reason we needed a place to sleep, we could certainly stretch out in our car. 

Sherman's gotten us to some mighty nice places this last week and I’ll be telling you more about them later on.  Right now I have to figure out what that little red light on the dashboard that came on this morning might mean. . .

High Plains Drifters on the Road Again

The High Plains Drifters, our other nom de blog, will soon be living for a couple of weeks in our hot, dry timeshare world -  Arizona’s desert. 

We’ve got plans to see a number of long time friends from the Northwest (who have also migrated south seeking sun) as well as some local folks we’ve met in the blogosphere: Jackie Dishner author of the guidebook, Backroads and Byways of Arizona, and publisher of the blog, Bike with Jackie (I love that title!) and David and Carol Porter, known  as The Roaming Boomers.  (Take a minute and check out those blogs by clicking the blue links.)

Before we settle in to our Scottsdale ‘home-away-from- home’ life, we’ll be traveling some of the back roads and byways,with stops in Prescott and Jerome in the north central part of the state.
 
We’ll also be taking a four-hour tour aboard the vintage train, the Verde Canyon Railroad, travelin’ 12 miles an hour through the Verde Canyon, once the home of the Sinagua Indians.

Have any recommendations for us in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area? Or north central Arizona?  How about recommendations for books set in Arizona? 

TP Thursday: The Arizona Oracle

We are in America’s Southwest this week and it seemed fitting to highlight the stark beauty that is found in this arid region of the country.

We were near Pinnacle Peak, to the north of Scottsdale and exploring the Four Seasons Resort . . .as we walked from the Residence Club parking lot to the hotel, this was what we saw between two of the casitas.  It was as if the rock was addressing the two saguaro cactus . . . we could only imagine the stories the rock could tell.

For other travel photos, check out Budget Travelers Sandbox.

High Plains Drifters find an Oasis

There are certain clichés that travel editors preach against writers using. One of them is “Oasis” as in, ‘After miles of dry desert, we happened upon an oasis.’

So with all due respect to editors everywhere, I need to tell you that we happened upon a most memorable ‘oasis’  Saturday on our road trip between Las Vegas and Scottsdale. 

We had taken Highway 40, a route that led us east through northern Arizona’s high desert along the Coconino Plateau; a route punctuated with road signs marking our climb in elevation to beyond the the 5,000+ foot level.

Our original plan was to have lunch in Prescott, the bustling town 95-miles north of Phoenix, but by noon we were still miles from there. . . however, we were nearing a turn-off to Ash Fork.

Kingman to Phoenix

Ash Fork, with a population in 2007 of 2,300, didn’t make it on this map, but is near Seligman. It was Ash Fork, we decided, we’d have lunch. As we drove the two-lane street toward what we thought was town center a welcome sign told us this place was  “The flagstone capital of the world”. The claim was illustrated in all types of construction -- homes, planters. . .there was flagstone everywhere.

What we didn’t see was any sign of was a commercial center, that is until the Oasis appeared. . .the Oasis Lounge, to be exact.
As we got out of our car, two big black guard dogs barked out a welcome from their viewing stand deck above the red truck in the photo. (Click to enlarge the photo if you want to see the canine crew).

Three people were sipping beers at the small bar to the left of the entry and a shuffle board table and pool table served as the tavern’s centerpieces.

“You folks looking for food?” called out the leather-jacket-clad bartender. He gestured to the back room and said, “The food’s back there.”

We were the only ones in the ‘cafe’ section so we selected one of the six booths that ringed its perimeter. Our booth provided a view of a Van Gogh reproduction on the opposite wall, as well as a washer and dryer sitting next to two center tables in the cafe, and a hand truck propped against another booth. Near the kitchen's swinging doors, a booth was set up with computers – we assumed it was the business office -- and near it were a couple broken chairs and some kids toys.

Okay, I have to be honest – I was ready to leave, but Joel reminded me we travel for ‘the experiences’ and this had promise of an experience.

Our waitress was also the cook.  We had a selection of a half dozen Mexican dishes from which to choose from on the 'lunch specials'.  Joel got the combination plate; I ordered two chicken tacos.  Although they came out as beef tacos, our  food was steaming hot. We were too early for the rice to be  quite ready but our cook/waitress had us taste it anyway –  (it was good).  In fact all the food was good, with a home-made good taste to it.

While we waited for the food we chatted with the bartender who told us the place had once been a car repair garage (note the front door in the photo – it was the car bay entry once). 

The town, he told us,  had once been a railroad stop and is right off the old Route 66. 

The train comes by these days - it no longer stops.  A section of old Route 66 is a scenic bypass between Kingman and Ash Fork. 

As we drove out of town we noted two other more traditional diner-type eateries down the road a bit, but our stop at the Oasis Lounge at 346 W.Park Ave., Ash Fork, AZ 86320, phone 928-637-2650 proved those editors wrong: you can find an oasis in the desert!.

Ouch! This one “Hertz”

Or the tale of our tiny silver ‘limo’.


The old adage ‘the devil’s in the details’ comes to mind as I tell the  latest segment in the High Plains Drifters travels. Those details are important when it comes to travel. . .and this time we slipped up and missed one tiny detail.   A costly little one, at that.

Rental cars are not cheap commodities these days no matter how good a deal you get. There are the usual add-ons like city, county, state taxes to which are added  “concession recovery  fees, facility fees and vehicle license cost recovery fees'” and, in the case of Hertz, the second driver (me) fee of $12 a day which we passed on. 

. . .ah, yes, then there is that drop off fee if you don’t return the car to the same place you picked it up.

That’s the  one  that nailed us.  We thought we’d confirmed we were picking up in Vegas and dropping off in Phoenix but somehow missed that detail.  A costly error indeed.

The Hertz counter agent quickly recalculated our rental and without blinking an eye our six day Nissan Versa  ‘economy’ car  (meaning ‘tiny’ not ‘cheap’) skyrocketed from the $285 to $604.

So with our accommodations pre-paid in Phoenix and our plane tickets home from there, there weren’t many options before us.  (Yes, we considered turning it in immediately upon arrival in Phoenix and renting a car there but that created a one-day rental fee of $245, pretty much defeating the purpose of salvaging some of the cost).

So we set off in what I am calling our ‘tiny silver limo’’ on a great route to Phoenix. More on that in our next post. For now, if you have a trip planned, go check your documents – one more time.

D2G: A Culinary Journey Road Test

Our "Diet 2 Go" , D2G, in Twitter-talk was 'put to the (road) test' in the Southwest.  Temptations were as prevalent as tumbleweeds.

Our first taste of reality came around noon only a few hours out of Las Vegas en route to Phoenix in a town called Kingman, known for its once strategic location on a section of Historic Route 66, just in case you've never heard of it.  We'd  stopped at a delightful coffee shop in the historic district planning to eat lunch. We ended up with one of the best cups of black coffee ever served, but said adios to the pastry case that offered the only sustenance. On we went to the ubiquitous Arizona convenience store, Circle K,  -- they are on every street corner, I think -- in hopes of finding something healthier.

The wafting scent of deep fry grease as I opened the doors should have told me that the best I would do there was a small carton of low-fat cottage cheese (one of two on the shelf).  Back in Ol' Orange we ate it, split a breakfast bar, and some almonds.

That was one of several times we had to either resist temptation or be creative in food choices as we ate our way through the Southwest.  But we ate a lot, even some of those 'forbidden wheat and sugar-based fruits' -- those, in moderation -- and drank with gusto.  We enjoyed great home-cooked dinners with friends in Phoenix and Tucson and even threw a party at our spacious digs in Scottsdale, and we dined out several times.

Pinnacle Peak General Store breakfast
j. smith photo, (c) 2011

One of the most surprising things we noticed -- now that we are noticing such things -- were the many restaurants offering sides of fruit, sliced tomatoes and cottage cheese for breakfast instead of the traditional hash browns and toast as shown on the photo of my breakfast at the General Store.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe they have always been offered and we just never noticed.

And for those of you who are following along -- and those who've reported that you've joined this culinary journey:  I am  down 9 pounds and Joel is close behind at 8.