Fossil Creek Is Awesome.

As I walked over to my computer to type up this blog, I just about stepped on a scorpion in my bare feet. No matter how long I live here in Arizona, I will always scream like a girl when this happens. They totally freak me out and I always seem to be barefoot when I encounter them in the house (which isn't that often, maybe a couple times a year).

Ewwww. Just ewww.

Okay, back to the blog. I had a good weekend, my older sister was in town visiting and I took her, Tom and some friends hiking to Fossil Creek. In my explorations of the Verde River Valley, I discovered an awesome little waterfall that is only an easy mile hike from a parking lot at the end of a steep dirt road. It takes a little driving to get to it, but it is easily one of the most beautiful water holes in the state due to the brilliant turquoise water and numerous waterfalls. I have definitely blogged about it before which you can see by hitting the "water" label, but I can't resist photographing it every time I go and throwing up the pics. It is amazing that this is all within two hours of the extreme desert known as Phoenix.




Afterward, we also took a walking tour of the town of Jerome which is basically a ghost town turned hippy enclave at the top of a mountain. This town once was a thriving 15,000 person mining town, but once the mines went dry, the people disappeared. It used to be half run by a harlem who owned a brothel and was the richest woman in the west. Apparently, they still have a lot of love for strong women, as seen here.