Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

Today's excursion was to Montezuma Castle off I-17 near Camp Verde. Just to be clear, it's not a castle and has nothing to do with Montezuma. But somehow the name has stuck. It's a fascinating place, and I'm glad we got to see it since we may or may not make it to Mesa Verde National Park, which has many more cliff dwellings and ones you can actually see up close if you are able walk up and down the ladders.

Southern Sinagua farmers began building this five-story, 20-room dwelling early in the 1100s.  It stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.  Early settlers marveled at the structure and assumed that it was Aztec in origin, hence the name Montezuma Castle.

This is part of Castle A, once an imposing six-story apartment-like building with about 45 rooms.  It is now badly deteriorated.  This dwelling was built against the base of the cliff. 

An audio diorama display told us about life in the "castle".

And a picture showed more about how the people lived in the rooms.

The community got their water from nearby Beaver Creek.  The creek was a reliable source of water, and there was fertile land on the nearby terrace.  By the 1400s, the Southern Sinagua had abandoned their cliff dwellings and we'll probably never know the reason why.

Western soapberry

The trees and vegetation at the Monument were interesting and added to the peaceful, contemplative visit.

                         The Arizona Sycamore tree.  I really liked this tree!

After touring the National Monument, we took a drive to Cottonwood and Jerome and decided to go to Prescott Valley to find the place where Dave is going to get the alignment on the motorhome done.  We took 89A south.  That was a mistake, but at least we were in the car, not the motorhome.  The route was narrow, winding, and took us to over 7000 feet.  We called it the "Road to Hana".  In fact, the real road to Hana, in Maui, Hawaii, is at sea level.  I'll admit that it has more potholes than 89A, but that's the only positive thing I can say about 89A.  We won't be driving that road again, even though it did have spectacular views of the red rock, multi-colored cliffs near Sedona.