Prescott, Jerome & Butt-crack Rock

June 12, 2008

Last weekend, Sarah and I took a trip up north to explore Prescott and Jerome and do some hiking.

After doing a swim race Saturday morning, we drove up to Prescott. I’d never been there before, but it reminded me a lot of Pocatello. There’s a lot of rich history downtown, including a story in the early 1900s where the majority of the town burned down.

The fire ravaged everything, including everyone’s favorite downtown watering hole. According to historians, bar patrons walked out of the famed Palace Saloon, taking the bar, booze and cash out of the establishment and across the street. The men continued drinking as Prescott continued to turn to ashes.

Arizona was the last of the mainland U.S. to become a state. Before being granted statehood, Arizona was essentially the final frontier (some would say things haven’t changed a whole lot) of the American West.

There was a big farmer’s market going on in the city center, as well as a living history exhibit with people doing all kinds of demonstrations from sheep shearing to wool dying, and fire starting and musket loading.

The whole town seemed to be participating, and it was fun to wander around and check stuff out.

The road from Prescott to Jerome is a nice drive. After a short zip across Prescott Valley, you start to ascend to the old mining town of Jerome. The road is a two lane highway and boasts more than 150 turns in something like 12 miles.

It’s a decent climb too. Good enough to attract a fair amount of cyclists looking to test their legs. I was surprised by the amount of riders we saw on the road. It’s not a really wide road, but the traffic is moving fairly slow, so I’m sure it’s safe enough. I’ve added it to my growing list of rides.

We arrived in Jerome mid-afternoon, and town was jumping. It’s a destination ride for motorcyclists, and the bars on the main drag were roaring with loud music. We checked into our room at the Mile High Inn, and got cleaned up.

We didn’t have a bathroom in our room, but there was a shared bathroom down the hall. It wasn’t the largest shower in the world — imagine showering in a phone booth — but it did the job. We had hysterics at our idea of taking a shower together to save time. It was essentially the equivalent of trying to shower in a sleeping bag.

We wandered around Jerome, sampling local wine, checking out the galleries and people watching. It was a beautiful day, and it was nice to be someplace different.

In addition to being a former mining town, Jerome was also a former location for the Arizona State Hospital. The hospital is now the Grand Hotel. The hotel and many of the other older buildings in Jerome are said to be haunted.

The Grand Hotel sits on the highest hill in town and has fantastic views. It’s a major walk uphill to get to the restaurant or to wander back to your room after hitting the local saloons, more on that later. After looking around at restaurants, we decided to eat at the Grand.

After trying to take a shortcut and doubling back, we made it to the hotel. We had a great meal. It was almost sort of surreal. The place still kind of seems like a hospital — something definitely felt out of place.

We left for the downhill stroll back to our hotel. Admiring the clear starry skies, we could hear grumbling in the distance. A couple who had had a little too much to drink was struggling up the hill.

Sarah made a comment to them about the hill that made them laugh. The man slurred out, “Yeah, those speed-bumps are a bitch.”

We laughed out loud.

The conversations seemed to get sillier when we got back to our hotel. We split bread pudding for dessert at the bar to listen to some woman telling tales of how she talked someone into eating pickled frogs balls.

“Do frogs have balls?”

“Yeah, they’re huge. About brussel sprouts size.”

“Noooo.”

“Yeah, and I got her to eat them.”

Meanwhile, the bartender sat in the distance wrapping silverware and rolling his eyes. I’m sure he wanted to feed the woman a big mouthful of frog balls to get her to shut up, but said testes were nowhere to be found.

The next morning we had breakfast, checked out and drove back to Prescott to hike. We chose a hike called Granite Mountain, which is kind of a misnomer.

It should be called Big Heap of Roundish Granite Rocks Often Confused with a Mountain. The trail ended about 300 yards from the true top, then it was more or less a scramble up some very odd rocks.

It was a warm day, and we made speedy work uphill as usual. And since we made such great time, we decided to take the long way home. The way back was mentioned on the map, we just had no idea of the length or amount of climbing involved. It was definitely a challenge. And we ran to make it even more challenging. That photo of Butt-crack Rock is from that section of the trail. The whole south side of the mountain features tons of interesting giant boulders.

By the time we were done, we had hiked about 12 miles. Sarah and I both ran out of water with about a mile and a half left to go. After getting cleaned up, we hung out in Prescott for a bit before heading back down to Scottsdale. Temperatures climbed to near 100 the closer we got to our house.

I definitely want to get back to Prescott. There are tons of trails and miles of bike lane to explore. It kind of felt like Bend and Central Oregon. In any case, it was well worth the drive.

Posted by seth | Filed Under Travel, Blog 

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