Day 18: Monday 12-Jul-1999

Base camp: Munds Park, Arizona

Excursion: Sedona, Jerome, Prescott, Arizona

Distance: 206 mi (330 km)

Today we decided to revisit Sedona and then to continue on south from it. We stopped at the campground office where Lillemor called the office back east to ask for ways we could fix the laptop. We then drove south on I17 and took Highway 179 into Sedona. The weather was much better than yesterday so we got a chance to enjoy the scenic views of the red rock mountains on our way into Sedona. We drove through Sedona and decided there was nothing we wanted to stop for. We continued on along highway 89A southwards.

	Stopped along Highway 169 on our way to Sedona, AZ.

We drove through Cottonwood and came upon the revived city of Jerome. This turned out to be a good stop. The town of Jerome is famous for many things, one of which once having been Arizona's 3rd largest city. The town is build on steep mountain slopes, similar to what you will find if you visit places like San Remo, Italy. Houses are mainly wood here, however. What made Jerome such a big town was its mines, all of which are now closed. We decided to visit their mine museum which is an Arizona State Historic Park. It was remarkably interesting and ranks high on our list of good museums. The displays were plentiful and they also had many artifacts from the town's heydays. The museum also ran a video movie about the town. It was also comfortably cooled as opposed to ice cold. Outside they had a display of old mining equipment, including a small ore train which Karl found very amusing. He kept running around telling us that he was "fixing" it, pulling levers and turning small knobs.

	Museum in Jerome, AZ.

	Mom, I am fixing the train, says Karl.

We continued south on 89A from Jerome. The road climbed very quickly from 3400ft (1000m) in Jerome to 7000ft by Mingus Mountain in Prescott National Forrest. We stopped at a picnic area by Mingus Mountain and ate our lunch. It had been hot in Jerome but up here it was nice and cool. We drove through the town of Prescott. It looked like a very nice town, with plenty of low and old brick buildings. We noticed they had lots of old saloons. In general it looked like this town deserved a full day visit sometime in the future.

	Dry desert near Prescott Valley. Can you say HOT.

After a quick turnaround in Prescott, we took Highway 69 back out to I17 and then started going north. This would be the farthest south we'd go during this trip. We stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument. That is an old Indian ruin, built into the mountain side, as if to avoid the ground. It had been occupied for about 500 years and then been abandoned. Once again we were down at about 3000ft and it was really hot. There are paved trails here, although they are not very long.

We drove up to Flagstaff on our way home, to go to a bigger grocery store, and then returned back to the campground in Munds Park. The round trip today was 206 miles (330km). We ate dinner and Per once again cursed over the broken laptop and over the fact that he could not read mails or do any web site work.

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