April 8 - Phoenix and Montezuma's Castle & Well

Today we left early and headed to Phoenix. No particular destination in mind, we just wanted to see the area as we've never been... and in case we have to move there for jobs. :-)

WOW, what a difference 100 miles and 2ooo feet in elevation make!!! It just got drier and drier as we entered Phoenix. A few miles outside of Phoenix we started seeing the Saguro cactus. We were the typical tourist ooohhhing and aaaahhhhing at everyone we saw. We'd never seen then 'in person' before. Very cool!!

Phoenix was certainly not what either of us expected. It's actually a very beautiful city (or conglomeration of cities), of course we stayed pretty much on the loop (101), just venturing off into Scottsdale to gas up and walk Hannah & Maggie. The landscaping was terrific along the roads which really helped the overall look - ABQ would look nice with as much landscaping too. Not to mention Phoenix just seems "newer". Anyway, we really liked what we saw in the clear, balmy 76 degree day we visited - who knows what we'd think when its 120 degrees!!!

On the road (I-17) to Phoenix, AZ

Downtown Phoenix (way in the back)

Condo or townhome in Phoenix

Hannah in Phoenix

Raymona with the fighting duo
at a hiking park in Phoenix

Looking across housetops in Phoenix

After we left Phoenix we drove north back to the Verde Valley and stopped at Monetezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well.

Bryan with a sleeping Hannah

Montezuma's Castle was named under the false belief that the ruins were built by Aztec refugees. A farming community of about 200 people flourished in here for about 300 years. The castle held about 35 families. It is believed that the people fled the Flagstaff area around 1100 AD to this area. Montezuma's Castle and the neighboring Castle A was occupied between 1200 AD and 1450 AD. The people located here are known as the Sinagua (pronounced sin-AH-waa). There are several Sinagua pueblos located within and near the Verde Valley. They farmed the land by using irrigation ditches, diverting water from nearby streams and using catchments to collect what precious rainfall they could. They also harvested what they could from native plants such as the Arizona Sycamore, yucca and hackberry.

No one really knows why the Sinagua left this area or where they went, but Hopi Indian legends suggest the Sinagua may have joined them.

Montezuma's Castle

Castle A
Beaver Creek at the base
of Montezuma's Castle

Arizona Sycamores

A few miles north of the Castle is Montezuma's Well. This 'well' was once a limestone cavern that has collaped becoming a sink hole containing a pool of water 55 ft deep and 368 ft across. Subterranean springs of warm water replenish the well with over a million & a half gallons of water a day - never varying, since (apparently) prehistoric times. The water is a temperate 75 degrees year 'round. The water flows out through a side cave, called a swallet, in the limestone wall. The water travels underground for 150 ft before emerging just a few feet above Beaver Creek. It takes seven minutes for the water to flow through the swallet and washes out 600 lbs of dissolved lime every day.

Montezuma's Well

Cliff dwelling in the walls above the Well

Prehistoric farms channeled this water into a mile long irrigation ditch to water their crops.

The outlet of the water from the Well

The irrigation canal