Point of Rocks RV Park

Point of Rocks RV Park

Prescott, AZ

May 15, 2025

The first time I saw this Common Raven was a few days before my last post. He was in the bird bath and hanging out both sides. This huge glossy black bird has visited a few times at the bird bath and perched on our fence since that first visit. They are considered to be among the smartest of all birds.  The last time I saw him perched on the fence with his beak wide open and a huge rock in it.  Sue said he would bring us gifts which I had read about years ago and I think that rock was a gift for us. 

Before we packed on Saturday and headed north on Sunday, we had one last walk with Lucy on Friday night.  It was a really pretty sunset walk that all three of us enjoyed.

And sweet little Lucy did a good job (well, mostly a good job) entertaining herself on Saturday as we were busy.

 

Lucy hides under or behind the kitchen table when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't be.

Early morning visitors as the sun was coming up Sunday morning and I was filling the bird bath.

Just like all those years we lived full-time in the RV, I still get excited about travel day. 

Point of Rocks RV Park in Prescott (pronounced Presscut for friends and family back east) has been on the list over 10 years.  Yes, we have visited Prescott on day trips when staying at Distant Drums in Camp Verde, but never had the opportunity to stay here.  P of Rs has a two dog limit and we always exceeded that limit with the Tan Clan.  Now it is just Lucy.    

Two of us are nosey, but I don't sit in the dash !

P of Rs is a beautiful park nestled in the Granite Dells with trees, birds, flowers, boulders, gravel level sites, full hook-up, and a camp store with ice cream. And, if that's not enough, it is just a short distance from anywhere we might want to go or anything we might want to do.  

A young short-needle pine,

a towhee hiding in the shadows (early morning),

the four-o'clocks are blooming,

and rounded, lumpy geological formations with exposed granite dated at about 1,400 million years old make this a great destination.  

There is a trail from the park to Watson Lake.  Watson Lake Park is 1/4 mile and the water is 1/2 mile further.  We haven't done that walk/hike yet, but we did venture around the corner and what a pretty view it was overlooking the valley.

Prescott has a great off-leash doggie park about 3 miles away.  We have been every day.  Willow Creek Dog Park is so clean and we have met the nicest pups and friendliest people there.  There is a  big fenced area for small pups and a huge fenced area for large pups.  The pups have turf for running, chasing and playing fetch, obstacles for playing, and fresh water. 

Lucy met Lucy...

Lucy and Snoop

Until next time...

The end of a pleasant travel day...and home for a week.

HAPPY TRAILS !

Cave Creek...Harold's and Frontier Town

Cave Creek Regional Park

May 10, 2023

Cave Creek, AZ 

Sunrise May 10

Wednesday we had planned a lazy morning at home with the pups...what a way to start the day !  Beautiful morning glow, a cool breeze, and the sound of silence sure have a way of putting an extra skip in my step and a big smile on my face.  A leisurely stroll with Joe, Dover, Sally and Jack always fills my heart with joy but first thing in the morning with the sun rising and fresh air just makes those walks even more special.  A new day...one more day...how wonderful life is !

By far, my favorite time of day...

We sat on the patio most of the morning and even had a rare second cup of coffee.  We all enjoyed breakfast outside watching the birds.  

Waiting patiently...

We weren't the only hungry critters outside...

We laughed out loud at a roadrunner and gamble's quail who were having a small altercation in the road.  The gamble really wanted to cross the street, but the roadrunner would not let it.  Every time the gamble got about 3/4s of the way, the roadrunner would chase him back to his (the gambles) side of the street..  After three tries or so, the gamble gave up and  decided foraging for breakfast on his side of the road would be best.   

The saguaro just outside the patio space is quite the perching spot for lots of birds.  I'm not sure what this bird is, but it is so pretty in flight. 

We watched as the curve-bill thrasher kept a close watch on a nest.  It was in a cholla behind some tall grass and bushes. 

With our breakfast bagels fading away, we decided to go to Cave Creek for lunch.  

Harold's came highly recommended.  

The sign says..."Harold's serves up the best durned cooking in these here parts (or any other parts, for that matter). "  The corral was built in 1935. Harold and  his wife purchased the corral in the 1950s.  

Since then, it is said to have spawned a million crazy stories with his flamboyant friends, movie stars, (real) cowboys, and other colorful characters.  I believe that to be true...there is not two inches of unused space on the wall.  I have never seen so many photos !  What a piece of history...

But my favorite...besides the patty melt, fries and cold brewski...are the boots.  A kazillion boots hanging on several rows of fence posts that run from one end to the other of the huge dining room and saloon bar.  I'm guessing thats where the best stories come from !

Next up was Frontier Town.  I know, it sounds cheesy.  

The Wild West town of Cave Creek was settled in the 1870s by miners and ranchers, but was not incorporated until 1986. One of the buildings in this  50 year old tourist attraction was actually built in the 1890s with the others built later in the 1930s and used by workers building Bartlett Dam.  We were pleasantly surprised that the small shops offered unique and locally crafted items.  My favorite was Candles and Gifts. 

Owners, also artists and candlemakers, are a couple with a passion for American made products and are proud that the products they sell are not just Made in America, but crafted locally.  My only purchase for the day was a candle...Sonoran Dust scent...and a beautiful terra cotta ceramic vessel with cliff dwellings to burn the candle in.  The husband of this team is the candlemaker and crafts his candles right there in the shop.

Western things...

A beautiful and shady courtyard...

Other shops at Frontier Town included hot sauce and salsa, women's clothing, a sweet little boutique with blankets, jewelry, soaps, and baby things.  And last, the 

General Store offered...

and...

We also strolled through Rare Earth Gallery.  They offer quite the collection of beautiful and unique items for purchase...a little out of our price range.  The outdoor water features caught my eye...

as did the iguana carvings...

and the colorful lights...not for sale...on the ceiling.

Back at the park, we enjoyed another nice sunset...

the rest of our lunch, some computer time and were off to bed.  Until next time,

HAPPY TRAILS !

Winslow, AZ

Holbrook/Petrified Forest KOA
October 30 - November 8, 2019
Holbrook, AZ

We arrived in Holbrook a couple of days early for a 9 night stay at the KOA.  


We chose Holbrook as it is pretty much in the center of two places we wanted to visit...Winslow, AZ and the Petrified Forest National Park. 





Winslow is about 30 miles away and was our first adventure while in the area...mainly because we were waiting for the weather to warm up and we really needed a stop at Walmart. There were three POIs here we wanted to see...   
1. Standin on the Corner Park (November 1)
The Eagles just happen to be my all time favorite band and I have been waiting a long time to stand on the corner in Winslow, AZ.  Their first song "Take it Easy" became a huge hit in 1977. 


"Take it Easy", co-written by Jackson Browne and Glen Frey, put Winslow on the map.
"The Corner", which opened as a park in 1999, is located on Route 66 in historic downtown Winslow and features a life size bronze statue of a balladeer known as Easy which resembles Browne.  Frey said in an interview that Browne came up with the line after getting stranded in Winslow and was stumped on how to finish the verse.  Frey and Browne were neighbors at the time.  It was Frey who added the flatbed Ford line and the rest is history !


A mural that depicts the lyrics of the song is painted on a brick facade    

and in 2016, a statue of Glen Frey was added to the corner.  



"Such a fine sight to see"...

2. La Posada Hotel (November 1)
La Posada embodies the visions of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the hotel's renowned architect and Allan Affeldt, the current owner.  But the real story begins with Fred Harvey who "civilized the west" by introducing linen, silverware, crystal, and impeccable service to railroad travel.  Harvey developed and ran all the hotels and restaurants of the Santa Fe Railroad. 

Colter worked for the Fred Harvey Co from 1905 until she retired in the 1950s.  She became famous for her buildings at the Grand Canyon, but considers La Posada her masterpiece.  She was given the freedom to design everything from the structures to the landscape, the furniture, the maids uniforms, and even the dinner china.

For 27 years, the hotel remained open for business.  It was closed in 1957 and all the furnishings were auctioned off in 1959.  In the early 1960s much of the building was gutted and transformed into offices for the railroad.  As recently as 1994, the building was nearly demolished when the railroad made plans to move out for good.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation found out about the La Posada's perils and added it to their endangered list where it came to to the attention of Allan Affeldt.  He purchased the hotel and after three long years of negotiating legal, environmental and financial obstacles he took on the enormous risk and complexity of the estimated $12,000,000 restoration.  

Not only is this a beautiful building, I find it's history interesting.  In 1997, Allan (who oversees the design, architecture, financing and planning)  and his wife Tina Mion (a renowned artist who paints in her studio upstairs and whose art is on display throughout the hotel), made La Posada their home.  



Oh if these walls could talk...such famous folks as Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Howard Hughes, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and many more have walked through these doors and stayed at La Posada Hotel. 

3. Homolovi State Park (November 7)

Homolovi SP was established as an Arizona State Park in 1986 to prevent illegal collecting of artifacts and destruction being caused to structures, burial grounds and kivas that were left behind as far back as 620 AD.

If you want to meander in peace and quiet, enjoy endless  desert vistas and come away with a small sense of what living in this environment may have been like, Homolovi (Hopi for "place of the little hills) is a must stop. The day Joe and I visited, we saw one other person at the Visitor Center and not another person the rest of the day.  

On our way to the Homolovi II site, we stopped to hike the Tsu'vo Trail (Hopi for "Path of the Rattlesnakes") to look for petroglyphs and milling stones.  We wandered on a path between the fallen boulders and two small buttes and found neither.

We extended our walk and joined the Dine Trail to a gorgeous overlook.  The sun felt warm on our backs, the sky was so blue and the clouds were low on the horizon.  

If you squint, you will see a bench on the mound just right of center in the photo.

 Homolovi II is the bigger of the two archeological sites containing an estimated 1200 to 2000 rooms.  Today the pueblos are covered with dirt with only a small block of five rooms excavated.    

Kivas typically had roofs, fire pits, ventilation tunnels and sipapus...holes or indentions in the ground that represent emergence: how people originally entered the world.



The kiva on this site was quite large.



















Homolovi II and Homolovi I are at opposite ends of the park.
It's short drive with wide-open vistas and the day we were there, we had our very own personal guides.

Homolovi I is adjacent to the Little Colorado River (signs warn about the river bed being unstable and may have quicksand so we didn't go there). The site is much smaller with only a wall excavated.

There are pottery pieces...lots and lots of pottery pieces at both sites.  We found a few and added them to the others.  We also found some beautiful flint rock, but don't know if it was used in trade or if it was indigenous to the area.



We stopped at the Visitor Center on our way in to pay the entrance fee ($7 per car) and see a small collection of artifacts.  











Since we had a couple of extra days, we decided to make an appointment with Freightliner in Flagstaff (November 4-5)  for service and maintenance.  

So glad we did as they found a couple of things that needed done.  We spent the night in their parking lot and Belle was ready to go by 2:00 pm the following day.  Joe was pleased with the service writer and the parts and service department.  If you are in the area, we do recommend them.


Up next...Petrified Forest National Park

Until then,

















HAPPY TRAILS !