We were pleasantly surprised by Cottonwood, it was a small town that seemed to be managing it1s expansion quite well compared to Prescott. Or maybe because every big box store known to mankind had set up shop half an hour away in Prescott there was no need to open up in Cottonwood.
They have a nicely preserved old town (from the thirties and forties) that is lively and full of restaurants, brew pubs, wine shops and galleries. No real stores though.
We walked from where we'd parked the truck and trailer at Safeway to the rec centre to pick up Leo's race package and discovered there is a giant lava rock quarry splitting the town in two.
A race volunteer recommended we have lunch at Hogwild, and so we did have excellent BBQ sandwiches there.
We checked into our RV park along the Verde River only to discover the water was high in arsenic (!), the rv site wasn't level, the wifi was useless, and half the washers weren't working in the laundry. We paid 42 bucks for this!
On the plus side, we were facing the river, the bathrooms were clean and the repairman came to fix the machines and gave us 2 free dryer cycles.
The next morning Leo's race started at 6 am, so we were up at 4. After Leo took off, I walked into the old town and checked out the shops. Then when the cafes opened I had second breakfast at the Red Rooster Cafe.
Then I walked the trails along the river where among other birds I found a hummingbird on her nest,
My camera doesn't do closeups as well as Leo's
And two cooper's hawks in their nest.
Leo planned a slow run and figured he'd be done at 11, but as I walked to the finish line at 10 am, he caught up to me and passed. First (and only) in his age class;
Leo accepts his award
In the afternoon we continued our quest of getting the most value out of our national parks pass and visited Tuzigoot National Monument.
Tuzigoot is a large Pueblo built on a hill ideally situated near the Verde River and surrounded by arable grasslands. The ruin was excavated and reconstructed in the 30's to provide employment and to create a tourist destination for the region. Much of the museum interpretation revolved around the different approach to preservation and restoration in comparison to today.
There was a great quantity of pottery excavated from the site, the archaeologists at the time described them as crude because they were undecorated, but as a retired potter myself, I can attest to the skill required to handbuild the large, symmetrical pots they made.
The monument also includes a marsh and on the trail we met two boys handling a small green snake with bright orange underside - we later id'd it as a regal ring-necked snake.
Not a full ring on this one's neck
The one boy was quite a snake whisperer, a few feet away he noticed quite a large rattler in the ditch next to the path where we'd just walked by.
Leo got a photo of it before it slid into a culvert under the sidewalk. Note to self, do not stick hand into a culvert without looking first!
Closeup of rattle and striped
Also lots of wildflowers in bloom along the trail.
Silverleaf nightshade :)
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