We decided to go and see Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well today. From Cottonwood we followed highway 260 to Camp Verde where, after a short diversion (missed the turnoff to the Castle), we went up the Montezuma Castle Highway to the Castle site. From the Castle, we went north on I-17 to the Well. After the Well, we went back to Cottonwood via the Cornville road which is a fantastic ride. The hills and mountains are beautiful and in some places they are even reminiscent of the Painted Desert. If you haven’t been in this area, I recommend it. It will help you remember that there is beauty in the desert. The whole trip was 80 miles and we spent a nice morning. It was pretty overcast so it was reasonably cool, although a little too humid for us. No matter what the weather is doing though, we strongly recommend that you take water—always a good practice in Arizona.
Montezuma’s castle is actually a 600 year old cliff dwelling left behind by the Sinagua Indians sometime in the 1400s. It is called Montezuma’s Castle because for a long time, it was erroneously believed that Montezuma came this far north to hide his treasure. That is because the structure appears similar to Aztec buildings. It is actually a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We both wish that there was some way we could have gone inside the structure, but the National Park Service doesn’t allow that. It actually sits very high up (at least a couple hundred feet) from the floor of the canyon it is in, so the inhabitants had to use ladders to get up to it. It makes you wonder why they put their homes there. Was it the protection from the rain, protection from the sun, protection from neighbors, or did it just have a wonderful view? (Probably not the view as there weren’t very many windows.) We’ll never know. According to the pamphlet they hand out, the castle has 20 rooms. There was another structure on the canyon floor that was six stories high and had about 45 rooms, but it pretty much turned into a pile of rubble quite some time ago.
Montezuma’s Well is a limestone sink hole formed by the collapse of an underground cavern. It is fed by springs that keep it flowing constantly. When you arrive, you have to walk up a trail a short distance and then down slightly to the rim of the hole. There is a path that leads halfway around it, and on the opposite rim, you can follow a path that leads down the back to where you can see the canal that the Indians dug to irrigate their crops. It is fascinating. There is also a Pit House site on the the way to the well that is interesting too. When Gary saw it, he said it reminded him of the Long Houses that he excavated at the Nesqually Indian Site in Washington state. It looks like a packed clay floor with holes in it where large poles were placed to support the roof. In the center is a fire pit which normally sat right below a hole in the roof that let the smoke out. The information sign near it said that it was built about 1100. The poles and roof are long gone, but it is kind of interesting. Further research on Pit Houses (on the Internet of course!) reveals that they can be found in many countries. I found a lot of references to Borneo and even China. Anyway, it seems like a semi-underground house could possibly be cooler than above ground.
If you would like to visit the Castle and the Well, we suggest that you go to the Well first. As you can see on this map, both are right off I-17, but here is the trick. It appears that many of the tour buses that leave from Phoenix arrive at the castle around 9:00. It makes for a very crowded experience. They probably have about a 1/2 hour stop and then head on up to Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon or wherever they are going. But, it doesn’t look like any of the buses go to the well. At least the road doesn’t look big enough for a bus and anything else to share it. So, if you get to the well around 9:00 and walk all around it and down the path to the irrigation canal, then take some pictures and chase a few lizards, by the time you get to the Castle, the bus traffic is probably gone. There is no charge to go to the Well, but there is a donation box. There is a $2.00 per person fee to go to the Castle. There is a visitor center at the Castle where you can buy postcards and books (and do a pit stop) and rangers at both locations who are happy to answer questions.
All in all, a nice morning. Our rating:
