Sedona, Jerome, and the Chapel of the Holy Cross

We left our casita wishing we could stay there for a week with our books and papers, but we had more places to go and things to see. We headed to Jerome, a mile-high copper mining town that became extinct as a mine but continues as a tourist and artist colony.  It was a beautiful sunshiny day and a perfect day for road trippin’ on a motorcycle, which we weren’t.  I like the idea of motorcycling the open road but Tech Guy does not share this fantasy and I don’t think I could hold a Harley up by myself…but those 3-wheelers are a possibility.

High on the hill is the town of Jerome, not a prepossessing sight, but its history which is written up on the outskirts of town draws you in, and then you discover on closer inspection that the shops and restaurants are thriving and it is almost impossible to get a parking place on a Saturday.

I contributed to the local economy by making an endowment for the arts…

I stopped to take a picture of this tumbledown gas station and then I realized that someone is still living downstairs.

Leaving Jerome we headed back through Sedona making a stop at an architectural marvel, the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

This chapel was built as a memorial to her parents by a local rancher who consulted with Frank Lloyd Wright and initially planned it to be built in Budapest, Europe, but the war intervened and it was then built in Sedona.

Looking down at the joining of the chapel to the rock base, and beyond to the parking lot with miniscule cars…

 

We had another one of those moments wondering, “Who on earth lives there?” as we looked down from the chapel to a nearby home. The closer you look, the more amazing it becomes!

Saying farewell to Sedona, Red Rocks and the chapel we headed to Flagstaff as our back door into the Grand Canyon Park.  In Flagstaff we had a celebratory stop at a favorite place: