Crown King

The "Mall" in Crown King
Happy Anniversary Saloon!
The Saloon Eatery

Arizona's "Oldest" Saloon

A few weeks ago, a co-worker of mine shared that she and her family drove up to the town of Crown King for a day visit. Today, we decided to take advantage of the same opportunity and also drive up to Crown King, which is located in the Bradshaw Mountains between Phoenix and Prescott. We brought Grammy along with us for the driving adventure, and literally, it was an adventure! About 45 minutes north on I-17, we exited the freeway at Bumble Bee and enjoyed the very short, smooth drive before the road went from asphalt to dirt and rocks - in other words, it turned into a "Primitive Road" as the sign post indicated. It was primitive alright and let's just say it's a good thing none of us had to use the restroom because with all the jarring, swerving, bumps and rattling our Durango was doing, it easily could have become a port-a-potty on wheels. For 26 bone-rattling miles, we travelled to Crown King through the towns of Bumble Bee and Cleator, which we observed both to have a general store and saloon, though Bumble Bee did also have a school that looked as if it was someone's house. Guess there's not much to do in these parts except shop and drink! The ride was actually kind of fun - the boys went back and forth between loving the bumps and disliking the bumps and with Grammy in the back between them, I think they felt as if they were on a roller coaster of sorts because now and then you'd hear a squeal of delight (though it could've been fear) as we'd hit a particularly big bump in the road. After about two hours into our road trip, we came upon Crown King, which also consists of a general store and saloon though as you see above there is a "mall" and church too. They must get out more up here with two places to shop, a place to worship, and then they go for their drinks. It actually was a cute little place, and I am serious when I say little as the town has only one way in and one way out. We shopped at the Prospector Mall and the proprietor gave us a schedule of events - the funniest one I thought is held in July: "The World's Shortest Parade" - guess when you have just one road in town, your parade route doesn't have far to go! Getting hungry, our one and only lunch option was to eat at the Saloon Eatery (the main restaurant in town, "The Mill," was closed) where we were greeted by our waiter, who also happened to be our cook. When Chris asked him if he expected any other customers, he told us we were probably the only customers he'd have for the day. It definitely was a fun adventure and if we had gone for one of the events, it probably would have been more worth the drive, but the scenery was beautiful and it was a perfect opportunity to visit a piece of Arizona's history. After eating, we decided to pack back into the dust mobile and head for home. The drive back down the mountain went much faster and Noah even managed to fall asleep for his nap amidst all the bumps. I wish I would have taken a picture of the car, as it was covered in layer upon layer of dust - more than I've ever seen it before. Guess I can check off Crown King on my list of places to visit in Arizona, though I'd actually consider going back but think it's probably only fair if I give the car a chance to recover first.