Montezuma's Well

Hello Family & Friends,
Just down the road about 10 miles is Montezuma's Well -- I think Darrel and I enjoyed this monument more than the Castle but they both were very interesting.  Check out the link for more information on this landmark.  The Well is free admittance but there was a Ranger on site, assuring us visitors that we would be found the "next morning" if we didn't make it back --- LOL

You have quite the hike up to see the Well -- we found lots of ducks swimming around.

From a distance you could see the mountain ridge.

The walls are very steep around the "watering hole"

As you walk the path around the area, there is an irrigation ditch that allows water out of the well into a nearby creek.

We were able to walk quite a ways into the irrigation ditch and saw even bigger Sycamore trees near Beaver Creek.

Waterfall up the way

We were able to walk down to the bottom of the edge of the Well.  Behind me you can see cliff dwellings they used in this area, just above the rim of the Well.

The weather was perfect, just warm enough but not too hot.  We plan to visit the next monument that is near Jerome to check out its history!

Thanks for reading,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Hello Family & Friends,
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

A Trip to Box Canyon

Hello Family & Friends,
On Saturday we took a ride with Bob & Ruger, his friends, Tee and Betsy and a pickleball playing friend, Carole.  We headed out in the UTVs to travel to Box Canyon.  So much has changed in the trails behind North Ranch -- between the Monsoons and all the extra rain we've received in November and December, the trails are really rugged and have changed in topography.  We had some pretty rocky climbs and a lot of water in the Hassayampa river.

We had overcast skies and some chilly temps when we started out at 9AM but sometimes that is more enjoyable than the heat beating down on you??

Although it doesn't took too rugged, this is the first rocky climb Bob took us up -- yikes, it has to get better, right?

OK, here's the black cattle at the bottom of the trail, see what I mean????  Look right in the center and to the right, those are cattle!!!

Always keep the landmarks to orient yourself, the mountains are a good one to see long distance.

This Saguaro is starting its little barrels so probably a youngster in the age of Saguaros

We arrived at the 1st stop before entering the canyon

The parking area before heading on down into the canyon.

The trees mark the area to head into the "Box Canyon" -- lots of water in the river.

You just never know where the cactus will grow!

Check this one out -- they look like soldiers guarding the ridge.

We found some cliff caves, not sure what resides there, but I don't want to find out!

Betsy (leaning on the white UTV), Tee in the middle of the pic, and Darrel in the red stocking cap.

Water, water, everywhere!

Darrel walks, looking for a place to cross the water.

Canyon ridge to the East

Canyon entrance

Bob and Ruger headed into the "Box Canyon" alcove

More water flowing

Trail to the left or crossing the water stream

We had a wonderful trip enjoying the quiet weather.  On our way back to North Ranch, we encountered a lady with 2 dogs walking one of the trails -- she seemed a little far away from the gate so we gave her and the 2 dogs a ride back -- what would have taken her about 45 mins. took us about 15 mins.  We were happy to help.

Sunday we woke up to lots of dense fog and could barely see the mountains. Arizona has had such weird weather this winter, I truly believe we are the "bad weather" gypsies!!!

We have a fairly quiet week but it seems lots of things pop up to do, so we try to stay flexible.  We have to schedule a truck fix date (4 recalls to correct) since the one we had scheduled didn't have all the parts and a couple of doctor appointments.

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and send our blessings always,

Love,

Susan & Darrel

Oh, Say Can You See

Hello Family & Friends,
This post is mostly pictures -- our neighbors across the street, Skip and Sue, left on Sunday, Dec. 1 after being in North Ranch for a visit -- Sue snapped some wonderful pictures in the Saguaro Park and one from her porch I especially like.  She was generous in letting me use her pictures on the blog -- they are absolutely gorgeous and would do a postcard credit!

Their park model is across the street and they have a lit up cactus in the front yard and "red hot" chili pepper lights they wrap on the porch banister.  Sue took this picture from her porch catch her lights and the flag in the background is on our lot.  It looks pretty awesome!

The night before the departed Skip and Sue took a walk through the Saguaro park and caught some wonderful sunset pictures.  Enjoy!!!!

Again, thanks to Sue for sharing her pictures -- the desert is a beautiful place (hence the title of my post "Oh Say Can You See", just way different from Kansas' landscape.

Hope everyone is doing well, stay tuned for a 2nd post about our UTV trip to Box Canyon -- 

Love to all, and sending many blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel

Snow, Again!!!

Hello Family & Friends,
We had a good Thanksgiving and managed to keep the snow on the Weaver Mountains.  The temperatures did drop to freezing so we dripped water to make sure we didn't have frozen pipes.  Probably a little cautious but didn't want to have a mess.

We've been on fix-it mode again, the refrigerator drip hose seemed to be off the water collection tray so I kept getting water on the shelves and in the produce crispers.  Darrel thought I wasn't tightening the caps on our water bottles so after tightening them to the point I need pliers to get them open (Haha), the water was still in the crisper.  A closer look found that the hose was just barely on the drain hole allowing the water to drip out.  Problem fixed with a longer hose!!!

And..... the furnace quit again.....but this time it was operator error as we ran the tanks out of propane 😒 even after checking??? I am on the search for ways to estimate the propane amount in the tanks but most of the sensors recommended are monitored by a smartphone and you don't even want to get me on cellular connection issues AGAIN!!

So now I will move to the cheery part of this post and send a few pics I snapped of the snow on the mountains!

The snow capped the mountains and made me think of Colorado -- it didn't make it to the bottom of the range so we didn't have snow in Congress.

A little bit of sunshine whitens the peak!

This is from our steps -- still have lots of green with all the moisture we have gotten.

And now for the entertaining part of our post 😄 -- Ruger!!!!

His desert googles and hat you've seen before, but he has a new shirt for the Wisconsin Badgers!!!

He gets to root for Wisconsin since that is Bob's home state.

Go Badgers!!!!

I cannot believe this dog's patience and how he lets Bob put clothing? on him.  Bob's friends in Wisconsin send him the dog clothes and I am sure Ruger really likes them (deep, down, inside somewhere -- 😜)

We wish you all a Happy Holiday season as December has rolled around --- we have nice sunshine for the next 2 or 3 days and then possible rain again but not predicting such storms that we had over Thanksgiving.

Sending love and hugs your way,

Susan & Darrel