The end of day 16 has arrived and what a busy day it was. I always feel guilty learning about American cultures I never knew about. I regret not learning more about the natives to our land before now. Today we learned about the life, culture, and history of Sinagua people.
Our first stop, just an hour and a half from Phoenix, was Montezuma Castle National Monument, one of the few monuments designated by Roosevelt. This cliff dwelling was built over three hundred years, had more than 20 rooms, and was five stories tall. Europeans rediscovered it almost 400 years after it has abandoned by the Sinagua and falsely named it after the Aztec culture. Although the so called castle is impressive we were more blown away by Castle A. In its prime, this cliff dwelling had 50 rooms and was significantly larger. Although, only the foundation remains, it was easy to visualize the Sinagua life.
What surprised us most about Montezuma Castle was the vast amount of people. By far, it was the busiest and most crowded park we’ve been too. Perhaps it was because we there on a Saturday, but we blown away by the crowd. Fortunately, this was the first of three stops we made today, and the other two had hardly any people.
After the girls were sworn in as Junior Rangers, we made the 20 minute drive to Montezuma Well. This is a natural spring that produces 1.5 MILLION gallons of water per DAY!!! Absolutely insane. We have seen so little water in nature this trip, but here we were walking around this giant pool. It took us a minute, but our eyes eventually made their way to a small cluster of cliff dwellings. Of course it would make sense for the Sinagua to settle here, with this plethora of fresh water. But then we read that the water has super high levels of arsenic and can’t be consumed. The Sinagua used the water for irrigation and got drinking water from the nearby Verde River.
Our final park site of the day was Tuzigoot National Monument. We seemed to have low expectations, knowig this was another quick stop and none of us really wanted to be in the 114 degree sun very long. Our attitudes changed when we walked into the Visitor’s Center and were kindly greeted by Brian, a volunteer. He accepted Ellie’s fourth grade park pass, gifted her with a postcard and an awesome lapel pin, and told us to enjoy the museum before heading to the ruins. I learned so much in this little museum and was blown away by the amount of artificats that have been excavated. Huge, beautiful pots, shoes, thread, tools, metates, and so much more. It was phenomenal. Volunteer Brian then led us on a private tour of the the reconstructed hill house and patiently answered all our questions. We’ve been in so many ruins and it is always hard to picture actually living life, sleeping, eating, playing, but there was one room that had a reconstructed ceiling. That simple part of the room made it all come to life and seem so real. I could finally picture it. I owe a huge thanks to Volunteer Brian for sharing his knowledge.
Three National Monuments, three Junior Ranger badges, and a whole lot of learning later, we made it toward our second Kimpton of the trip in Sedona. Dinner was at The Hudson and our server, Ian, did a great job putting up with our laughs. The food was out of this world, but the company was even better.
After a late night swim we are all ready for a good night’s sleep and another eventful day tomorrow.
