Yesterday, me and my husband went to Crown King with my mom and dad in my brother's truck.
First off, the drive there is only a dirt road. No paved roads. When you finally reach the "town" of 80-100 year round residents, the first thing you'll see is The Mill. They had great food and lots of wonderful old antiques from that era as well as the mill parts they salvaged from the original mill about 2 miles away.
The Mill's retired juke box:
Which president started the fireside chats over the radio? I remember seeing a picture of a family way back then sitting around a radio just like this...
The gold presses in the mill.
They had tons of scales all around the building. Many of them I wonder if they were used to weigh their gold.
There were so many hummingbirds visiting their (at least) 6 hummingbird feeders. Here's one that wasn't scared of my husband who was waiting patiently for it to land in his hand (which it didn't).
Here is the outside of The Mill. It was closed as we were leaving. We got there just in time.
Outside the General store, they had these marvelous things you stick your head in and someone takes your picture. There was also one of a fat old prospector. I'm not letting you see my face though... Just imagine the top (she was lovely).
This was taken inside the guest ranch. It is someone's garden all in pots and old wheelbarrows with old tools laying everywhere. Quite the pile! But very nice and healthy!
OK. We shall start the tour of the entire town. Just scroll up to see The mill first, Then imagine driving over a little bridge, then The Chapel is next:
Literally right next to it, The Guest Ranch/Realtors office:
Then next, I didn't take a picture of it, but it was a bunch of tables with umbrellas to sit at, the welcome center or something,
And next,(and these all connect to each other with no room between,) The General Store. It's for sale if anyone's interested. They sell the best fudge many different flavors. The mint chocolate was almost gone, and I swiped the last of it HA HA HA HA if you go there, you'll have to wait for them to make more! MMMMM it was so good! You can buy all kinds of tourist trap knick knacks and see really old antiques, as well as purchase all you need to make a meal, as well as the fudge. Lets lot forget the fudge. You can order it and they'll mail it to you!
There is a small driveway to get to the back, partially pictured, then The Volunteer Fire Station.
Here it is:
And just beyond that, Yup, the end of town.
Crown King Curio was closed for good it looked, and The Saloon was next to it with a tiny cafe behind it. All locals and their dogs there it seemed. They welcomed us and said they loved tourists.
Just after the saloon, there was a patch of trees and the road curved a little ways, and the last building. Doozy's Bakery. We didn't go there. The tree on the left side is the tree you see in the picture of the fire station/curio shop/saloon end of town second picture above, just so you can see it really is very close to the saloon.
If you go back up to the start of town, there's a road by the bridge. If you drive up a short ways, there's The School House which has 2-18 students a year. Here's the colorful half:
And the other half: In a fenced area connected to the building on the other side, there was a playground with 2 swings, a free standing slide, a basket ball court, and a small jungle gym.
The road back the way we came:
I took most of these while we were driving: The burned areas from the Gladiator Fire. It just missed Crown King.
Pockets of burned scotched places in the green.
I took many great pictures:
And true hair pin-turns:
Very pretty views.
Burned:
EEEEK! Check out the tiny crickety bridge we just drove over!
Same area: Gees Bro! You should really wash your back window! Sorry about the blurry picture guys!
The end. I hope you enjoyed the trip and hope to have you join us again soon!
I can officially say I've survived the ride to Crown King and back and lived to tell the tale!
Trisha.
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