Dead Horse State Park and the Verde Valley

Through my Camping with horses Facebook page we met a rider from the area that wanted to take us for a good ride here in Cottonwood at Dead Horse State Park  . Jeanmarie met us at our camp site first thing in the morning on the 29th. We did about a 7 hour loop down to the river then up above on the plaque above camp. Great ride it was almost like riding a mini Grand Canyon from the top.

We started out going through lots of large Cottonwoods. I guess this is where the town name Cottonwood comes from 

More Cottonwood trees 

Very large cottonwoods with cool shapes 

Up on the hill is the Tuzigoot National Monument 

Another view of the Tuzigoot National Monument  

Along the river they have an area that is for Paint Ball it is kind of neat. No paint ballers when we rode through. LOL 

This ride took us on many river crossings

Here is a really cool Cottonwood tree

I huge brown Owl flow over us and landed in the tree above. You can just see him here in above picture. 

We heading into Old Historical Cottonwood 

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The old Jail house is now a Tea house

We met up with to other Arizonian riders and they followed us into town too. 

Heading back on the Jail Trail from the old Jail house. 

We traveled under the bridge and continued to follow river for a couple more hours

An other interesting sport along the river. This is a Tee but not a normal golf tee. It is Frisbee golf 

They have to get the Frisbee into this basket 

Another river crossing as we head back toward the hills

We headed up to the top of the hills above camp to the Plaque 

We plan on riding the top of this rock mountain above the Park. 

It was a steep climb to the top

Once up there OMG the view were of the whole Verde Valley 

Here is the trail we came up 

You can see the lakes at the park from up here 

Kind of like a mini Grand Canyon 

After our ride we drive up the valley to Jerome Ghost town and over the mountain to the Prescott Valley 

This town sits high on a hill over looking the Verde Valley  and is very much like some small towns you would see in Europe the streets are very narrow and there are lots of switch backs. 

We took scenic drive to the Prescott Valley 

Got to the Prescott Valley  just as the sun was setting 

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