Montezuma (?) and a bear in the woods (?)

Sorry about the delay in updating this blog but we have been busy enjoying ourselves and seeing lots of things. We did spend part of a couple of days just bumming around home doing some chores and just relaxing.

Should be in the high 80s today so it's getting close to time to start heading North. That is in a week or two.


We're in Camp Verde, AZ, which is between Phoenix and Flagstaff (not as warm as Phoenix and not as cold as Flagstaff). There is much to do around here. Above and below are pictures of Montezuma's Castle. It's not really a castle and has nothing to do with Montezuma, but someone gave it the name and it stuck! It is really another cliff dwelling, made and lived in hundreds of years ago by the Sinagua Pueblo Indians. They took naturally-formed caves and made homes out of them. As you can see, they are in the rock of the hillside and they had to climb ladders to get there.
A close-up (as close as Dick could get with the camera as this one is not accessible to the public).

And another showing some of the rooms that are near the bottom of the cliff.

This is Montezuma's Well -- same story, it was used by the Sinagua. It is a naturally-occurring "lake" that the Sinaguas used for irrigation, forming canals. They also used the area for living, with cliff houses in the walls.

Another view you can see at the top some houses built into the wall .

A close-up of the "house" formed using the cave and adobe.

This is one of the small rooms made and used by the Sinagua. As you can see by what Jackie is wearing, it was a cold and windy day when we visited. But still a beautiful place.

Another day we took a ride on the road to Cherry. After finding three geocaches, we continued climbing up the mountain. This is the view looking back toward Camp Verde. We would call this road a old fire break or logging road back home. Lots of curves gravel and one lane.

Some typical plant life on this mountain road. Spring is here and the plants have come to life, greening up.

Further along this road, here is a bear someone carved out in the middle of nowhere! Of course we drove past it, then had to back up so we could get a picture!

Just out of the town of Camp Verde is an old Salt Mine (no longer used). We found a geocache there, too. If you need any salt just let us know and we can get all you want. We also walked across this huge pile.

Along the country road was this creek with the beautiful red rock. We understand that the red rock is even more spectacular up in Sedona, but that's for next week. We'll be moving to a campground just up the road later this week, so will continue to enjoy the beauty of this area for a little longer.

To be continued...