Sedona and More SNOW!!!!

Feb. 2, 2007 Tucson, AZ

We just finished spending a week in Sedona, Arizona. For those of you who are not familiar with Sedona, it is a beautiful area, approximately 100 miles north of Phoenix, near the Grand Canyon and the Mogollon Rim (pronounced Mug-ee-ooyon). Sedona is known for the red rocks and red rock formations that surround the area. There is Snoopy Rock, Coffee Pot rock, steamboat rock, nuns rock, you get the idea. The rocks will change color with the sun and at sunset they are truly at their best.

The town was founded in the early 1900's by Theodore and Sedona Schnebly. History says that they wanted to establish a post office and submitted the name "Schnebly Station"; which was rejected by the postal commission as being to long. So they then named the town "Sedona".

We arrived on Friday, Jan 26 with Gary and Jeannette Wraspir following us in their car. Driving through Phoenix was truly a nightmare! So much traffic, way too many cars for the road! We are staying at the Villas of Sedona, in West Sedona. Very nice two bedroom townhouse timeshare and within walking distance to grocery stores, restaurantes, etc. Matter of fact, we dined at Troia's Pizza Pasta Amore' for dinner. It is right next to the timeshare and what a great find! The food was outstanding! AND for dessert I had chocolate bread pudding (not your fav, I know suzi)and it was wonderful...gotta find a recipe for that!

Jan 27
After breakfast at the timeshare, Gary and Jeannette took off on a "power" walk...I knew I couldn't keep up with them, so I sat off to walk for 30-40 minutes to explore. What a beautiful day for a walk...a little on the cool side, but still the sun was out this morning.

After lunch we took a "Pink Jeep Tour" around the area.
Actually we took the "whoosy" tour...not a lot of off road and four wheel driving on this tour. Some of the tours offered were down right scary! Our tour, Coyote Canyon took us back through some canyons and up to an old cabin named "Van Deren Cabin" which was which was originally homesteaded by a local named Bill Fredericks, who was known for his "good whiskey".
In 1924 he sold the cabin to Earl Van Deren. Earl married soon after and expanded the cabin to two rooms!! Woo Hoo! Interesting place to visit. However, it was a little of a rough ride up to this cabin, even 4x4 wheeling at times. We were exploring the cabin and I walked behind it and lo' and behold, there was a beautiful golf course right behind it. Obviously, we were brought to the cabin the "old" way!!!! At any rate we had a good time and saw some wonderful red rocks and great views of the Mogollon Rim.

And Bev...these PINK JAVALENA'S are just for you!!!


















Later Jeannette and I went up to view the wonderful sunset over Sedona from the airport. Absolutely beautiful...the pictures don't do it justice.



Jan 28
Today we toured Jerome Arizona. Jerome is about 30 miles from Sedona, located high on top of Cleopatra Hill (5,200 feet). It is a historic copper mining town. Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome was a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents to a roaring mining community. Four disastrous fires destroyed large sections of the town during its early history, resulting in the incorporation of the City of Jerome in 1899.
Founded in 1876, Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. The population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920's. The Depression of the 1930's slowed the mining operation and the claim went to Phelps Dodge, who holds the claim today. World War II brought increased demand for copper, but after the war, demand slowed. Dependant on the copper market, Phelps Dodge Mine closed in 1953. The remaining 50 to 100 hardy souls promoted the town as a historic ghost town. In 1967 Jerome was designated a National Historic District by the federal government. Jerome sits above what was the largest copper mine in Arizona and produced an astonishing 3 million pounds of copper per month. Today the mines are silent, and Jerome has become the largest ghost town in America.
The towns personality has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. Once a thriving mining camp between the late-1880s and early 1950s, Jerome is now a bustling tourist magnet and artistic community with a population of about 450. From its external appearances it hasn't changed much in nearly 100 years. Many of the buildings used by present-day business folks are those built after the fires of 1894 and1899. A number of the buildings have been restored and more are planned for restoration. Due to the 30-degree incline of the mountainside, gravity has pulled a number of buildings down the slope. To the delight of some, one of those buildings was the town's jail and in a back alley is where all the buildings were are part of Jerome's ill-famed "prostitution row." Very interesting place. We poked around for about an hour then went to visit my cousin Beverly who has her jewelry design shop in the old high school in Jerome. We had a short, but good visit with her and then we were off to Cottonwood to visit Jeannette's cousin Susan.

Jan. 29
Gary and Jeannette left to go back to Tucson today, but not before we had breakfast at the Coffee Pot Restaurant, home of 101 omelets! Once owned as a bar by the actress Jane Russell, the city fathers decreed when she sold it that it would never be used as a bar again. That was fine with us as the omelet's were wonderful and the menu was, as represented, very varied!

This afternoon good friends Carl and Ruby Skidmore from Lake Havasu arrived for a couple of days.

Jan 30
We woke to a gloomy, gray, rainy, cold day. WE decided to lay low for a while and see if the weather would change...it didn't. It just got worse. WE finally went across the street to JB's restaurant for lunch..and to our amazement it was their opening day. The owner of the JB restaurant chain was there and he visited with us for a while telling us all about thier restaurants. The food and service were great.

Tonight for dinner we went back to Troia's and it was just as good as before. And it was raining so hard we had to drive the short distance instead of walk.

Jan 31
Today's weather is the same as yesterdays, only the clouds are so low you can't see any scenry at all. After breakfast we decided to take a ride to Cottonwood then back to Sedona. We went up to the Chapel in the Rocks, but it was raining so hard we decided not to try and walk up to the chapel. We did see a HUGE, monster of a house being built right below the chapel...remind Al and I of gaudy Saudi houses!

We met my cousin Beverly for dinner tonight at Kaiser's West which is noted for their ribs and home cooking. It was good and we would go back. After we got back to the townhouse I decided to out in search of an ice machine that was in the building behind us. As I stepped out the back door I was pelted with snow! BIG, FAT snow flakes and coming down hard and sticking to everything. ARRGG! Can't get away from it! After a while it changed to a hard rain fortunately.

Feb. 1
Carl and Ruby left today after seeing absolutely NO SCENERY at all! WE will have to try this again. WE decided we would head home as well...no sense in sitting around watching it rain and snow. We got home late afternoon to 4 happy pets! Carl and Ruby ran into some bad driving conditions after they left Sedona, snow and slick roads from Sedona to Flagstaff. We only ran into rain and wind coming home.

Snow on the red rocks of Sedona Snow on the Mogollon Rim



Our next trip is planned in a week or so to Yuma so I can attend the Red Hat convention there and we can visit with our friends there. So until next time........