Another great road trip in Arizona...
We explore its most famous ghost town and indulge in some (surprisingly) fantastic local wine.
Jerome
We arrive in Jerome, AZ - a former billion dollar mining town (similar to Bisbee, AZ) which is now Arizona's most famous ghost town (current population of about 300). It has become a hippie enclave with amazing art galleries, including some of the most bizarre (albeit overpriced) blown glass galleries we've ever seen.
We stayed in a quaint B&B called The Ghost City Inn which has a thoroughly documented history of hauntings and ghost sitings. I thought it would be fun to stay in a real haunted house...but it was a little too real for Michelle as she didn't get a wink of sleep. I was trying to tell her there are no such things as ghosts, but I have to admit even I was getting a little freaked out at the strange sound of screen doors slamming at 2am in the morning!
Humming birds greeting us outside our room.
An incredible view.
We left Jerome and headed to one of our favorite places in all of Arizona - Sedona! Before we arrived we decided to stop off in Page Springs to visit a couple of local wineries. I've heard that TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan had his own winery in the region and we wanted to visit.
Unfortunately, his wine is not truly local as of yet because his Arizona vines haven't been harvested (current grapes come from Cali) but they will be soon. Also, it's not technically Maynard's winery. He is using the resources of Page Springs Cellars to press and bottle his wine. Even so, it was funny to see fans of the hardcore rock band, looking like they just came from a concert, come into the winery with TOOL shirts and crazy facial hair daintily sipping wine and commenting on its tannins.
One thing I found dissapointing was Maynard's signature wine, Caduceus, was unavailable for tasting and costed upwards of $50 to buy.
The surprise dark horse of this wine tour was Oak Creek Vineyards which was right down the road. Not only do they grow their own grapes on site, they press and bottle everything right there as well. We had a wine tasting and grabbed 3 bottles of fantastic vino, including a unique Rosé that is not to be missed.
We spent our last night in one of our favorite places in breathtaking Sedona. We've both been here many times but it continues to awe every time we come back.
The best part about it was we got a hustled GREAT deal (under $50) on a beautiful apartment all to ourselves with an unbeatable view for the night.
Here's the secret to the cheap room: Go to the downtown/main street area on N Highway 89a and walk up and down the east side of the street. Look for a sign on the sidewalk that advertises a super cheap room and let the person know your interested. The kicker is you have to listen to an hour sales pitch about purchasing a timeshare the next day BUT make sure, during the beginning of the conversation, you let the salesman know you don't vacation often and show no interest. He let us go in 20 minutes!!
20 minutes of our time for a kick ass room in Sedona? I will do it every time!
This is the view from our discounted room!
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