Montezuma Castle and Well

Yesterday, after a late breakfast and early lunch at Denny's we made a short drive to Montezuma Castle Natl. Park. The we included Anne & Henry, Jake & Nancy and of course Dean & I. I finally got to see some cliff dwellings and these were impressive. There were also ruins of another dwelling just past Montezuma, but erosion has taken it's toll there. Montezuma Castle is well preserved thanks to our National Park service. It is a five story, 20 room dwelling that was built in the early 12th century. It stands in a cliff recess about 100 feet above the valley. Early settlers assumed it was Aztec in origin, hence the name Montezuma Castle. Montezuma was never here! By clicking on the pictures they will enlarge and hopefully you can read some of the story of the Sinagua, the people who lived here and how the castle was built.










This is a model of how it would look inside the dwellings....





These are pictures of Castle A, pueblo ruins just around the corner from Montezuma Castle. The park service is working at preserving what is left. This was once a six-story "apartment complex" with about 45 rooms.





Our next stop was at Montezuma Well, again named by early settlers. The well is a limestone sink formed long ago by the collapse of an immense underground cavern. The springs that feed it flow continuously. The Southern Sinagua irrigated their crops with irrigation ditches dug from the well. There were also Sinagua dwellings here, again in the side of the cliff. There are also ruins of Hohokam pithouses on site that were built around 1100 A.D. The walk to the well was up the side of a steep hill, but worth the view after getting there!









The pithouse ruins....



Our last stop of the day was at the Cliff Castle Casino, owned by the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Typical Indian owned casino, tight slots machines. Nancy and Jake played blackjack and actually won about $150 between them, not bad. After an hour of playing we met a Johnny Rocket's Diner (inside the casino) for more food. The others had never been to a Johnny Rockets so they enjoyed the performance by the staff and of course the food, especially the milk shakes.

We returned home happy but tired. It was an early to bed night.