So crazy name for a park right?  Well there is a story behind the name.  Dead Horse Ranch State Park was the name of the ranch prior to becoming a state park.  The MN family was looking to buy a ranch in AZ and toured several, one having a large dead horse on the side of the road.  At the end of the tour, the kids were asked which one they liked best and they said the one with the dead horse!  In 1973, when the AZ Park System acquired the land, the family made it a requirement for the name to stay with the park.  There you have it!  Now it makes sense.
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The park is located in Cottonwood, AZ.  A perfect location to explore central AZ red rock country and all of the amazingly unique features and history the area has to offer.  Camping is spread out throughout the park, with 4 loops, another cabin loop and an overflow/group area.  In my opinion the Red Tail Loop is the best loop for larger RV's.  We lucked out with a fantastic back-in site with a mesahill right behind our site.  The view from the top of that hill was amazing.  You could see Mingus Mountain and the city of Cottonwood.  

The park also has plenty of hiking trails and a couple lagoons for fishing.  You can also launch canoes and kayaks in the lagoons and there is really nice walking trails around them as well, that are very popular.  We took a walk around the lagoons one morning and it was quite busy with walkers and folks fishing.  We saw several large catfish and bass but the folks fishing said they just weren't biting.

With soo much to see and do  in the area, we made the most of our short stay here and lived like tourists.  Our first full day we explored Cottonwood with its rich downtown history and had a delicious "brunch" at Crema.  We love to seek out the local eateries. Rick went breakfast with a delicious spinach and roasted red pepper benedict and I went for the cuban with a side salad.  The food did not disappoint and the ghostly history behind the location made for a fun time.  

We then headed down the street to Arizona Stronghold Winery for a wine tasting.  Unlike tastings we are used to, they have wine tasting groups for you to choose from.  We chose two of the red wine tastings on the menu so we could share them since they were generous pours! We sat out on the courtyard and enjoyed the wine tasting. Our steward also gave us a bonus taste of one of their best (and most expensive) red wines.  Several were very good and we decided on one of the cheaper bottles to take with us as a $38 bottle of wine really does not fit into our budget!

Needing to walk off our delicious food, we headed over to Tuzigoot National Monument.  Every year we purchase the Annual National Park pass and for $80, we can get into all the national parks, monuments, forests, etc.  We are definitely putting it to good use!
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Tuzigoot is an ancient pueblo on a desert hilltop built by the Sinagua people around 1000 A.D.  You can walk through the ruins and there is a nice visitor center that tells the story of the people who lived here with displays of artifacts they found in the ruins.

The next day we headed to Sedona.  This trendy little town is known for its beautiful red rock vistas, which are everywhere you turn.  Breathtaking views and unique rock formations are at every turn.  We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was built high up in the red rocks overlooking Sedona by a vision of a local rancher and artist, Marguerite Brunswig Staude who was inspired by the Empire State Building.  The church no longer holds weekly services because of the small space and even smaller parking area.  The cross inside was absolutely beautiful and had a very earthy, lifelike look...sorry, best I can describe it!  Behind the church is a rock formation that is said to look like Mary and the baby Jesus, which inspired Marguerite to choose this location to have the church built.

We also took a jeep tour out into the red rocks near Devils Bridge.  It was beautiful to see the landscape from that vantage point and I was amazed by the absolute silence, except for an occasional bird.  After the jeep tour and some lunch, we continued to drive around the area taking in the beauty from every angle.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, pictures just cannot do it justice!

We took a day to do the basic household chores like cleaning up a bit, groceries and laundry and explore the park.
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The next day we were back in tourist mode, with a jam packed day as it was our last in the area and there were still 3 spots we wanted to explore.  We started at Montezuma Well in the Verde Valley, just south of Sedona.  This is a hidden National Monument gem that turned out to be pretty interesting.  Another influence of the Sinagua people, this is an oasis in the desert.  Along the wall of the well, you could see cliff dwellings. The well is fed by water that permeates the rock and a vertical wall of volcanic basalt under the well area acts like a dam and pushes the water up into the well at a steady rate of 15 million gallons a day!  It then flows through a long, narrow cave into a subterranean waterway on the south side or the well.  The walk down to this area led you to, what felt like, a whole other world with prehistoric looking trees and lush greenery hidden in this dry, desert area.

From the well we traveled about 10 miles south to Montezuma Castle, which had more impressive cliff dwellings on a larger scale.  THe main dwelling is a 20 room, 5 story high rise in the side of a limestone cliff and is in really good shape considering it was built sometime between 1100 and 1300 A.D.  Up until the early 50's, visitors could climb several ladders on the side of the cliff to tour the castle.  Now the below diorama shows how life would be in the dwelling.  The park also has a really nice visitor center with alot of artifacts discovered in the excavation of the site.

Our final stop of the day was to Fort Verde State Historic Park.  This Indian Wars era fort was base for US Army scouts and soldiers from 1870's to 1890's.  We took the self guided tour through Officers Row, which has restored buildings for officers quarters, and surgeons quarters.  They also have an extensive museum and film that told the military history of the area.  The ranger here was more than happy to spend time with us and give us the history of the fort and allow Rick to handle the guns and rifles of the time.  She even dressed us up in period wear and took pictures of us.
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Throughout the year, the fort hosts many different reenactments and events.

Our time in the Verde Valley went by quick, but we got to see alot of great things and the views never got old!

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The first full day in Prescott we decided to check off one item on our bucket list and visit Jerome.  We have heard from a couple people how awesome the ride up to Jerome is from Prescott and it certainly did not disappoint!  Even though Prescott Valley and Jerome are essentially at the same elevation (5026 and 5066 respectively), you cross the Mingus Mountain range to get to Jerome.  There are switchbacks and lots of ups and downs to make it very interesting and amazingly beautiful!  Another E ticket ride in the dually!

We even drove up higher off one of the National Forest Roads to a summer campground that had yet to open.  

Jerome was a quirky little town that came to life as a booming copper mine town.  Today it is a touristy town with wineries and art galleries and the Haunted Hamburger restaurant.  Oh sure there are other places to eat but this place was the bomb!!  And it's haunted!  The place has a great story and even greater food!  Rick had the Ghostly Burger and a salted carmel milkshake that was heavenly!  I had a Cajun Sourdough Chicken with salad that was also to die for.  They also have a very nice condiment bar for your sandwiches, which I thought was really cool.   Sorry no pictures of the food.  After waiting 30 minutes at 2:30pm, yes they have a long wait, we were famished and dove right in.

We also visited the Jerome State Historic Park while in town.  This is not really a nature park but a park in a mansion, dedicated to the mining history of the town.  The Douglas mansion was built ​in 1916 by mining magnate, James S. Douglas, on a hill, just above his Little Daisy Mine.  The home is a museum dedicated to the history of Jerome, its mining operations and the Douglas family, who are quite an interesting bunch.  The mansion has rooms restored to their original state and the outside has alot of mining equipment used back then, gems found in the area and amazing views of the San Francisco Peaks, Jerome and the Verde Valley. They also have a really nice 30 minute movie, told by a ghostly former Jerome resident.  This place is definitely worth a stop if you are ever in the area.

The town itself is built on the side of a cliff and has narrow, windy roads which made it very interesting as we navigated the big dually truck through the streets.  We were lucky to find a parking lot off behind the fire station that could accommodate larger vehicles, otherwise Jerome would have been a drive thru kinda trip.  The story of the jail pictured below is kinda cool.  As with any town built on a cliff, you are going to have landslides and Jerome is no different.  In fact, that jail slid 200 feet down the cliff to land where it sits today and was perfectly intact! 

We also thought no visit to Jerome would be complete without a visit to the Gold Mine Ghost Town just outside of town.  Be kinda cool to see a deserted town, WRONG!  This place was downright creepy and I swear we heard a banjo playing!  There were discarded vehicles of all types everywhere, some that looked like they had residents.  We took these pictures and left!

​SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
Thank you for stopping by!!!!

​After our a successful Harvest Host experience, we moved on to explore Prescott Valley and the surrounding area.  We were craving to see trees again after several months in the desert and the Prescott area did not disappoint.  This area is considered high dessert, in Central AZ, sitting at about 5200 ft above sea level.  The temperatures were about 10-15 degrees cooler than Mesa, which was a welcome change.  

​We pulled into Fairgrounds RV Park around 11am and were immediately impressed by the cleanliness of the park, even though about 75% are full time residents.  This was also a Passport America park so our first 3 nights were half price.  This program has really paid for itself already in spades.  We had a spacious site on the back perimeter of the park with FHU, including cable.  There wasn't really alot of extra amenities, except for a nice laundry room with an extensive library building that had lightening fast internet.  That was just what we needed!

​​The park is situated outside of the city and is next to Arizona Downs which holds horse races in the summer and off track wagering.  It is certainly quiet at night at the park but with some city lights, it didn't get as dark as we thought it would, but we still saw some stars.

One of the first things we did while in Prescott was to take a trip up to Jerome, but we will cover that in its own, seperate piece next.  

We also drove around Prescott and delighted in all the trees we saw here.  After being in the desert for a couple months, we couldn't stop pointing different trees out as we drove along.  One day we visited Highlands Center for Natural History and took a hike to really get our fill of trees.  This is such a neat nature center located near Lynx Lake in the Prescott National Forest, which is literally a couple miles from the main strip in town.  It looks like they have really great programs for children and the community and ALOT of money was donated to build this center because this place was beautiful!

We took advantage of the hiking trails at the center and used their geological field guides to read along the way that outlines the unique and diverse landscape of the Central AZ Highlands.  The brochure was very well done and we learned alot about the varying landscapes throughout our hike.

We also visited downtown historic Prescott one afternoon.  Unfortunately there were some heated anti-Trump rallies going on and we decided to just do a drive through of historic Whiskey Row and the courthouse square.

Prescott is a city that really feels spread out with alot of unique green space.  One of those unique green spaces we found fascinating was the Granite Dells.  Driving through the area felt like being on another planet.  Amazing granite rock formations that have eroded in to lumpy, rippled masses.

With all of these great vistas in Prescott, we needed some equally great food and we found it at Plaza Bonita.  Rick is an enchilada fan and gave their enchiladas two thumbs up.  I went outside my usual mexican dishes and tried the Camarones Portuguese.  Essentially, jumbo shrimp wrapped with bacon and ham and stuffed with cheese in a savory Portuguese red sauce.  Oh my goodness...words cannot describe how delicious this dish was!  Topped with strawberry margaritas, it was a fantastic meal!  And BONUS, there are several Plaza Bonitas in AZ!  Might just need to go there again.

While we were at the RV park with full hook ups, Rick took time to do some maintenance on the RV and I will let him take over and outline his work on the water heater.  
Rick here, my normal duties are driving and rv maintenance so writing about it might be a bit difficult. A water heater is a vital part of an RV, and maintenance is necessary for it perform when needed. Flushing the water heater of calcium build up and inspecting the anode rod [suburban water heaters have anode rods, so you need to know what kind you have] should be a yearly process if not every 6 months depending on hardness of water.

Step 1- Turn off water heater, gas and electric by turning off switches on your inside RV panel.  I also like to turn off the switch on the water heater itself on the outside to ensure that the electric element is off so it does not burn out. Then drain off hot water by running a hot water faucet.  This is best done after taking showers and on sewer hook ups as  our water heater is 12 gallons.​ This will help to ensure that you do not get burnt by hot water when you take the anode rod out.

​Step 2 - Turn off city water or water pump and with a 1  1\16 inch socket loosen nut on lower part of water heater and release pressure by lifting T&P valve handle. Continue to remove anode rod nut standing to the side as water will gush out when rod is removed.

​Step 3 - Next afix a water heater flush attachment onto your hose and insert into water heater thru anode rod hole. Turn on water and flush tank until all calcium deposits are removed. The calcium will come out anode rod hole and may take awhile as build up has to break lose.

​Step 4 - Inspect anode rod. On the below picture the new rod is on the right. the consensus is to replace when 75% of the flat surface is gone. As you can  see our old one is completely eaten away and was definitely in need of replacement.

Step 5 - Install anode rod. First, wrap teflon tape around anode rod threads counterclockwise about two times. (Counterclockwise so it does not bunch up or come off while re-installing the anode rod).  Put in anode rod and turn by hand with fingertips while pushing with thumb on the flat end part. This will make sense when you try to get threads started. Be patient, they will catch. Snug tight with ratchet.

Step 6 - Turn on water and fill water heater. Turn on a hot water faucet and bleed off air and to ensure water has filled water heater. Do not use T&P valve to check if water has filled water heater as this can remove the air cushion and will not allow for expansion when water heats up and can cause other issues. When the water heater is full, turn on outside switch and inside switches and check for leaks.
You should now be ready for normal water heater use.

We really enjoyed our time in the Prescott area and would love to come back again!  Next up...our day trip up to Jerome.

​SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
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