This is the last installment of posts from our Arizona vacation. After thoroughly enjoying Sedona, we wanted to see a great example of some cliff dwellings left by ancient indigenous people. However, we did not have much time to spare before needing to head south to Scottsdale. We found a place called Montezuma Castle which was close to our route along Interstate 17 in Camp Verde.
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| Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona |
Being a National Monument operated by the National Park Service, the area was well developed with a large parking lot, paved trails, and a visitor center. It cost $5 per person and it was a nice facility. We were actually hoping that the place was going to be less developed (and less visited), but even in the late afternoon on a weekday in November the site was fairly populated. After enduring the usual bureaucratic delay, we paid the entrance fee and walked out onto the short 1/3 mile trail to view Montezuma Castle.
Montezuma Castle is one of the best preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings in North America and is so well built that it has stood for over 700 years. Theodore Roosevelt called it a place "of the greatest ethnological value and scientific interest" and declared it one of the first National Monuments in the country in 1906. It was built by the Southern Sinagua, reached its maximum size in 1300, and was inhabited for another century. It is not clear why they left, but with an "undiscovered" continent to roam, why stay in one place for long?
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| Montezuma Castle cliff dwelling |
Originally, visitors could climb up into the ruins by using a series of ladders that were placed along the limestone cliffs. Due to damage by visitors, the ladders were removed and public access was discontinued in 1951. Although most of the original artifacts were removed by early looters, a wealth of artifacts have been recovered from this site, particularly from an excavation in 1933.
The nearby Verde River flows through the valley and it was easy to see why this site was chosen for a cliff dwelling. Early visitors assumed the site was Aztec in origin, hence the name "Montezuma."
There were some interpretive signs along the way explaining the vegetation and we really liked the Arizona Sycamore (Platanus wrightii), very similar to the American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) we have back in Illinois. As they say, the bark of this species looks normal at the base, but as you go up the bark, it looks "more sick." One way to remember it at least.
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| Susan and I by the Arizona Sycamores (Platanus wrightii) |
Since the rental car was due back in the evening we had to boogie on back down south. Everything seemed so close on this trip, two hours here, two hours there. Soon we were back at the Hertz rental car location. My father picked us up and we returned to my parents' house. They live in a gated community and there is a heated pool and hot tub across the street. Sore from all the hiking and travelling, we took advantage of the hot tub. It was a beautiful, big, and bright full moon and a perfect way to end our vacation. Except we had one more hike planned for the next morning before our flight back to Chicago.
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| Sitting in the hot tub under the full moon |
My father is quite active and fit and wanted to take us on a hike nearby. We decided on Tom Thumb Mountain in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The is a nearly 28,000 acre non-motorized desert habitat owned by the city of Scottsdale. In an area with such urban sprawl, it was nice to see at least a little bit of desert set aside and left almost untouched. It was a lovely Sunday and there were a lot of people hiking on the trails, but there was plenty to share with everyone.
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| Susan and I hiking Tom Thumb Mountain |
I especially enjoyed the interpretive signs next to the plants close to the trailhead. It is so important in my opinion to teach people about plants and particularly native species. Here are a couple neat plants we observed along the way.
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| Teddy Bear Cholla (Cylindropuntia biglovii) |
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| Buckhorn Cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa) |
It was a more difficult hike than I expected, although I was consuming plenty of water in the mild autumn sunshine, I felt rather terrible by the end. I think a week of super vacation was catching up to me! We managed our way up and up around the granite boulders that seemed to be formed in every shape and configuration possible.
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| Hiking the trail up Tom Thumb Mountain |
The slow action of erosion, wind, water, ice, and gravity have weathered the rocks and left them in the condition we see today. The rock left exposed on the surface was quite rounded and this was evident on many of the largest boulders near the summit of the mountain, such as Tom Thumb Mountain, rounded in such a way to look like the shape of a thumb finger.
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| McDowell Sonoran Preserve |
It was interesting to see the diversity of people on the trail. Diversity in the sense of attire, age, ethnicity, and physical fitness. It reminded me of why I love the wilderness. Not very many people are willing to work for the solitude. But nature is important wherever it exists, even right on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area. Before long, we made it to the top, at least as far as we could go without ropes. I scrambled my way up a little further and had some photos taken.
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| Me on the granite rocks |
The views from the summit were pretty much spectacular! It is so interesting to me how steep and jagged mountains meet the flat and gently sloping valleys. As they say geology rocks!
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| View from Tom Thumb Mountain |
After snapping more photos at the top, we made our way down the trail the same way we came. The trail was mostly easy, with some fun maneuvers along the way.
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| At Tom Thumb Mountain |
Such concludes our 2013 fall vacation to Arizona! I had wanted to visit my folks and see their winter home for some time. Since they plan on selling it next fall, I am glad we took the opportunity to travel out there and hang out with them, as well as travel to a few of the many popular destinations in the state of Arizona. Until our next adventure, take care now ya hear.
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| Cowboy Benda |
