Before we left Kartchner Caverns, we visited The Amerind, an American Indian Museum, gallery and history center. There are the most amazing places in the middle of no where. This is in the town of Dragoon, AZ but right off I10. They have a very large collection of pottery, baskets and incredible Navajo and native jewelry. No photos allowed. Super cool place.
On Monday (March 6) we departed Kartchner Caverns and southern Arizona. I am considering this the start of the second part of our trip. It was an almost 400 mile drive north and east to Homolovi State Park. We drove through Tucson, Phoenix and Flagstaff to get here. That's a long day for us as we have been keeping it to a couple of hours or so and this took about 6 hours. We got on the road just after 8 and arrived at the campground around 4, including stops for gas and such. 384 miles, average 15mpg which is pretty amazing considering the altitude climbs. We had the choice or a twisty mountain route, or the safer but longer interstate route, which we chose. 
Amerind Museum
The drive the the mountains around Flagstaff was very pretty - and up to 7,000 feet. Lots of snow up there. Then descended back to about 4,500 where we are now. 
Snowy Flagstaff highway 
Humphries Peak, San Francisco Mtns, highest in AZ
We are quite close to the town of Winslow, AZ, made famous in the Jackson Browne song Take it Easy. There's a Standing on the Corner Foundation which has created a little park and tourist spot where you can have a photo opp..and plenty of old white people taking advantage of it. Pretty fun. And funny. This is right on old RT 66 and there's some nice remnants of that architecture.
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| yes both of us |
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| Flatbed Ford |
There's a restored hotel here called La Posada - much original to the site and very nicely done. Interesting history if you care to read it.
La Posada
Interior 
Ex-ballroom
Homolovi (pronounced Home-O-lovey) is Hopi for "Place of the Little Hills" and it is still considered sacred ground to the Hope. There are two Anasazi pueblo ruins at the park, and they are covered in pot shards everywhere you look. You can feel the ancient-ness of the place, and in the pottery pieces themselves. These sites have been heavily looted over the years both by pot thieves and by Mormon settlers who used the stones for their dwellings . There are also some petroglyphs in the area.
Potshards 
ancient mortar 
ancient wall 
lot of potshard, many colors and patterns
Restored Kiva
colors and patterns
Petroglyph
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| Petroglyph |
There's not a whole lot to do here, and this desert wind that has hundreds of miles to pick up speed is driving us kind of batty so we are leaving on Saturday a day early, instead of Sunday, and heading to Rimrock, AZ to spend the week with my niece Sharon Smith and her wonderful hubby Kyle. This is about 30 minutes south of Sedona and there is much to do in the area - birding and hiking and other stuff too.
It's really great to have places we can stay besides campgrounds. Really nice to be able to break the camping up with friends.
Full moon rising
Sun setting behind Winslow
Stats: $251 for 6 nights so $41/night. Water is turned off for the winter, too! So that is a bit steep. Bathrooms are sort of heated, but do have hot water. Did not try the showers. Not my favorite place as campgrounds go. Off to do laundry tomorrow. Yee haa.
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