Today, Montezuma Castle National Monument has two units, Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well. These historic sites are relatively close together, separated by 17 km. Many people visit Montezuma Castle as a day trip from Sedona, since it’s only 40 km south and just a few minutes off the I-17 – making it easily accessible. From I-17, take Exit 289, drive east on Middle Verde Road (through two traffic circles) for about 0.8 km to the blinking red light. Take the next left to Montezuma Castle Road and follow it for about 3.2 km. This road will terminate in the parking lot for the national monument. Once you arrive at the Montezuma Castle parking area, take a short two-minute walk along an easy 0.5-km paved ADA-accessible road. The paved nature trail leads past the ruins and then loops back along Beaver Creek. As you first walk along the path, you are surrounded by white-barked Arizona sycamore trees. Several exhibits explaining more than 900 years of ancient Sinagua culture are also on display. A short distance from the visitor centre, Montezuma Castle slowly reveals itself. It’s impressive when you lay eyes on it for the first time. Keep an eye out for lizards, songbirds and rock squirrels. These animals are often found along the trail. Or take a moment to find some shade in the large sycamore trees and have a picnic, as you take in the cliff dwelling. Montezuma Well is a sub-unit of Montezuma Castle. Managed by the Park Service, it is located about 15-20 minutes to the north. From Montezuma Castle National Monument, head toward I-17 and go north 2.4 km to the next exit (Exit 293). Total trip between Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well is 17 km. For a first-time visitor, it may be hard to know what one should expect from a place called Montezuma Well. Few anticipate what will meet their eyes at the top of the first hill, just 73 metres past the ranger station. The Well is a place like no other. It shows us the power of water to affect land, life and people. It is an oasis in a harsh desert, home to species found nowhere else. It is a peaceful pond, yet it is also the setting of a struggle between life and death. And it is the ancestral home and a place of great power for Native Americans whose forebearers lived here. How could water be the most important player in a story about the desert? In an entire year, Montezuma Well receives less than 33 cm of rainfall – barely ⅓ of the national average for the United States. Yet the Well contains more than 65 million litres of water! Where does it come from? How did it get there? Until 2011, the answers to these questions were a mystery. Though water may be easily turned aside, it is patient, persistent and unrelenting. More than 10,000 years ago, the Well’s water fell as rain and snow atop the Mogollon Rim, visible to the north. Over millennia, it has percolated slowly through hundreds of yards of rock, draining drop by drop through the path of least resistance. But here, the water encounters an obstacle much harder than the others through which it has flowed. Beneath the Well, a vertical wall of volcanic basalt acts like a dam forcing water back toward the surface. In its long trip toward daylight, it eroded an underground cavern until its roof collapsed and created the sinkhole which you see today. The water still flows. Every day, the Well is replenished with 5.6 million litres of new water. Like a bowl with a crack in its side, the water overflows through a long, narrow cave in the southeast rim to reappear on the other side at the outlet. Side trails lead from the main loop down to cool, shaded benches at each end of this subterranean waterway. RV Lifestyle Worth Pondering… To my mind, these live oak-dotted hills fat with side oats grama, these pine-clad mesas spangled with flowers, these lazy trout streams burbling along under great sycamores and cottonwoods, come near to being the cream of creation. —Aldo Leopold, 1937 22 | www.snowbirds.org
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzMzNzMx