Friday, March 17, 2017

Montezuma Castle and Jerome, Arizona

This past Tuesday we decided to get out of Mesa to escape the 90 degree heat. You don't have to drive very far to experience cooler weather, just head for someplace with a higher altitude. Jerome's elevation is at 5066 feet above sea level so its considerably cooler than Mesa which is at 1240 feet.

Before you arrive at Jerome there is a roadside attraction called The Montezuma Castle National Monument. Perched high on the side of a cliff are the reconstructed remains of an ancient adobe cliff house that has housed generations of natives dating back around 1000 years.

For a reference of scale, check out the size of the workers that are performing repairs the structure.

This cross-section drawing shows how the 20 room, 4000 square foot complex is anchored to the face of the cliff.

Yvonne posing by an Arizona Sycamore tree.

Like many other Arizona towns, Jerome got it's start as a mining camp. Today the town relies mostly on tourism. There are plenty of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops.

We ate at Vaqueros Grill,  Great Mexican food and wicked IPA.

Local artwork at $350 a pop. I might go into business making these things.

Yvonne recently attended a wildlife photography workshop in Leisure World. The instructor explained various ways to capture photos of wild animals in their natural habitat.  One method was to simply set up a tripod and camera and wait for an animal to enter your photo frame.  Well, just as she predicted, and before a minute passed,  this magnificent rabbit made an appearance.

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