Jerome

A beautiful little town built into the side of a mountain cliff.  It was a mining town with all the amenities - cowboys, shootouts, brothels.  There's still a bordello there today, though I think it functions more as a tourist bar now than a brothel. Now it's an artist colony with some amazing galleries.

Oddly enough, this place really reminded us of Europe in a lot of ways.  There are roundabouts instead of stoplights everywhere, and since this city is set into a mountainside, with winding streets going up and up, it has the feel of one of those Mediterranean towns like the Cinque Terra in Italy, though of course not quite the same since it overlooks a desert rather than the sea.  Here's what it looks like from a distance.

The town is also interesting because it represents the dichotomy that's evident throughout Arizona right now.  It has art galleries that are selling artworks for $25,000, complete with wine tastings, and a Grand Hotel at the top of the road with a very expensive restaurant called the Asylum.  But at the same time, there are buildings that are completely abandoned, right next to the ritzy ones, or sometimes on top of or beneath.  Look at the picture with the hammock - it's right under the building next to it that only has a wall left standing.

There are some intriguing pictures of Jerome that we couldn't get, because we were just there for a little while.  Check out this picture of the ghost town just north of Jerome.  And here's what it looked like in 1909. I also wish we could have seen this Turqoise Stream!