Walking on Prescott's creekside Greenways, Sunday, July 29, 2018

On Friday the 27th, Habitat ReStore staff and volunteers had happy hour at the Prescott Brewing Company in downtown Prescott.  From our rental, I walked south on Gail Gardner Way, then east on Fair Street, then south on Miller Valley Road, then east on Gurley Street to the Prescott Brewoing Company bar and restaurant - a bit less than two miles in about 35 minutes.  On my way south on Miller Valley Road, just south of Bannen Street, Miller Creek crosses under the street.  I noticed that the creekside trail can be accessed from the south side of the creek.

On Sunday morning, Patty and I decided to go downtown to the Williamson Valley Fire Department Arts and Crafts Fair held on Courthouse Plaza, just across the street from the building where the Prescott Brewing Company is located.  I chose to walk, because I wanted to check out the creekside trail.  When I saw the trail Friday, I noticed that it went west from Miller Valley Road back towards our rental.  So I tried to access the trail off of Fair Street where the creek crosses under the street.  Unfortunately, I could not find the access point, so I ended up back on Fair Street going east, then walked south on Miller Valley Road to the creek.  The access point is just south of where the creek goes under the road, but before getting down on the trail, I took this photo of the trail and foot bridge from the bridge up on Miller Valley Road.

When I got down to the trail I learned that the bridge was built as an Eagle Scout project.

I became interested in the creek side trails because of an article in the Daily Courier  - the local paper gave mixed reviews of the trail system.  The trail was mostly in the shade of the trees on both sides of the creek.

In many places, the adjacent businesses and homes wanted to have nothing to do with the trail.

In some places, the city has built nice foot bridges across the flowing water.

There were also benches at numerous location.

The trail went past the Prescott Community Gardens.

There were several trails and I ended up leaving the Butte Creek trail at the Tom Pettit's Community Park on Montezuma St., just across from the intersection with Sheldon St.

I walked the last couple of blocks south on Montezuma St. and ended up at the north entrance to the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza on Gurley St.  While waiting for Patty to drive downtown, I noticed that just as there was a timeline on the sidewalk up to the Prescott Library, there is a timeline in the sidewalk here.

The courthouse is over one hundred years old and is quite stately.  There is a large, life sized sculpture of a cowboy on his horse.

After Patty arrived, we started to walk around the plaza to see what the artisans had for sale.  The plaza has many large trees, including the Statehood Tree,  planted in 1912 when Arizona became the 48th state - the last of the continental territories to do so.

We wandered at a leisurely pace by the vendors' tents.

I saw this one tent that reminded me of Martha's jewelry making and my spending time one December at the Vermont Artisan's space in Burlington Center Mall.

Patty and I came across this memorial to Mike, the community dog - it made me think of Sam, Mr. Shadow and Stowe, the three dogs in our family over the past 40 years.

After about 90 minutes, Patty headed off to the Peregrine Book Store and then to Target.  I chose to walk back, but by a different route.  I went to the southwest corner of the plaza to head west to the El Gato Azul restaurant, as I knew there was a staircase there from the street to the trail.

Near downtown, there were a couple of businesses who treated the trail as a second front for their businesses, one on the street and one on the trail.

At one spot, there was a series of community murals on one of the retaining walls.

This coffee shop had tables outside accessible from the trail, from the coffee shop and from the street.

As mentioned in the article linked above, the creek side trails could be a real asset, but they need a lot of work.  While I saw people walking, even some with baby strollers, and several on bicycles, I also saw three places where homeless people had set up camps.  As mentioned above, the bulk of my time on the trail was in the shade - so even though I was on the trail in the heat of the day, walking in the shade of the trees made it quite tolerable.

Fort Verde State Park and the Asylum in Jerome, AZ, Sunday, July 22,2018

We started the day with a walk to McQueens Coffee shop.  It is connected with the Rustic Pie cafe, but the cafe is only open Tuesday through Saturday, while the coffee shop is also open on Sunday from 9 - 2.  While the Rustic Pie is not open, their kitchen still makes the huge and delicious cinnamon rolls for the coffee shop.  So that was our breakfast, out on the patio shared by the coffee shop and cafe.

After breakfast, we decided to visit Fort Verde State Historic Park in the town of Camp Verde, about an hour northeast from our rental in Prescott.  The Fort was operational from 1871 to 1891.  After the fort closed, all of the wooden buildings were bought by local residents for the lumber - they were all dismantled and the lumber was used in other local homes and businesses.  Only the four buildings built of adobe bricks were left, and those have been rehabilitated; they now house exhibits from the 1880s.

The Visitor Center and Museum are in the former Administration Building.  We were greeted by a volunteer in 1880s military uniform, portraying Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper, a former slave who was the first black man to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  Flipper graduated from West Point in 1877.  I was familiar with the story of Lt Flipper and his court-martial.  I am not sure where I saw it, but I remember seeing a video about him and his court-martial conviction.  I think I may have watched the PBS video Held in Trust: The Story of Lt. Henry O Flipper at some point in time.  The volunteer was from Boston, but now lives in Camp Verde.  He shared a lot of info about the Buffalo Soldiers.  The museum also had an interesting 15 minute video about the Indian Scouts that were enlisted into the Army.

After leaving the museum, we headed across the street to the parade ground to see the three remaining buildings.

The first building was the commanding officers quarters.  Although now covered with wood and stucco, there was a section of wall inside that was covered only with glass so that we could see the adobe bricks in the wall.  Downstairs had several large rooms; upstairs were rooms for the commandant's children, plus a room for the Striker, the enlisted man assigned to help run the commandant's house - this included cooking, helping the wife and taking care of the children.

 

Behind the commandant's quarters was a replica of the Post Garden, using the three sisters method of farming - corn surrounded by beans surrounded by squash.

This is the back side of the Commandant's quarters, taken from next to the Post Garden.

Then it was on to the Bachelor Officers Quarters.

And then the Post Surgeon's quarters, with interesting info about an 'ambulance" and "the hospital cow" (provided to get good nutrition to recuperating soldiers).

Just beyond the parade grounds and outside the fence of the historical park, I could see the local Camp Verde Historical Society (it was closed).

After our visit, the thermometer in the car read 114 degrees, while Accuweather was reporting a mere 99 degrees in Camp Verde at about 30 minutes past noon.  We decided to take a different route and go through Cottonwood to Jerome and visit one of our favorite restaurants The Asylum - it is located in what is now the Jerome Hotel and which at one time was an actual asylum, the United Verde Hospital.  It sits high upon the hill looking over the town of Jerome and out to the Verde Valley.  It was cool enough at that altitude to sit outside on the porch for our lunch.

After a pleasant lunch and drinks, we prepared to return to Prescott.  The asylum is known for their wine selection and I saw this picture before we left.

And then it was a leisurely drive back over Mingus Mountain to Prescott.  A pleasant Sunday in the high country.