This morning we headed south 50 miles for a visit to Montezuma Well, Montezuma Castle, & Tuzigoot National Monuments and the Sedona Red Rock area. When we left at 8am the RV park was at 65F and rising. By the time we traveled 20 mile and from 6600' to 5000' it had risen to 86F and by noon we were at 1,000' and 100F. We had traveled this area before but had never stopped at the monuments. It was definitely a good day. The ancients had settled here around 1000AD but vanished before the Spanish got here in the 1500s. Montezuma Well was a limestone sink with a major underground water source. It appeared to have everything you need: water, food, and shelter.
Eleven mile further south on Beaver Creek was Montazuma Castle. This was a pretty impressive cliff dwelling.
Traveling west about 20 miles brought us to Tuzigoot, a completely different dwelling located on a knoll overlooking a desert marsh. The unique thing here; the NPS removes 6' Diamondbacks from the sidewalks leading up to the dwelling every morning as they like the warmed concrete. (At least our NPS ranger isn't doing that.)
By now it was mid afternoon so we headed for up scale Sedona, stopped at a quilt shop, took some red rock pictures, then headed back up the hill to Flagstaff and the moose.
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