We decided to take a day "off" and do some sightseeing. We had wanted to visit Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well National Monument near Camp Verde and Rimrock, Arizona. We headed out on a beautiful day and it takes about 2 hours to get there (you have mountains to climb and Prescott to go through). I have put up two posts so the pictures don't get overwhelming.
Our first destination was Montezuma's Castle (which is funny because Montezuma never visited the area for either the Castle or Well) -- the Castle is basically a cliff dwelling environment.
You head out on a 1/3 mile loop walk that lets you observe the "castle" and the surrounding area.
SIDE NOTE: If you are over 62 and don't have a National Park Pass for Seniors, I highly recommend that you purchase one. Darrel got his when he turned 62 and it was $10.00. They have now raised the amount to $80.00 but this pass allowed us to get in free to visit the monument.
It is pretty high up and is 5 levels of living area.
Additional building sites are there as well that were used for daily living activities.
Stone walls still stand from the fountain.
As you look up you see additional alcoves that were used for a variety of reasons.
Beaver Creek provided their water resource and it was running quickly the day we visited.
Here I am in front of the stone wall.
We also got introduced to some of the native plants in the area. We didn't realize that Arizona has a Sycamore tree and a Walnut tree -- not sure I could pick them out in the desert but I plan to get a Flora book soon.
The Sycamores are huge and many are hundreds of years old.
The bark is smooth and green, unlike a Kansas Sycamore tree.
The Walnut tree is small and scraggly -- unlike the walnuts we had in our yard.
We enjoyed the walk and headed on to Montezuma's Well which was about 10 miles away, further north on I-17.
Check out the next post for our adventure to the Well.
Sending blessings from the road,
Susan & Darrel
No comments:
Post a Comment