Parker decided he needed a vacation, so we found a hotel in Sedona and made the drive up north. About an hour into the drive to Sedona is Montezuma Castle National Monument. I was looking forward to seeing it, but never expected something of this size, or this good of condition. We’ve been to the Tonto Cliff Dwellings, but that was nowhere as big, and the condition of this site was much better. The difference being that one is not allowed to go inside, you are limited to the pathway below. The Tonto dwellings you are allowed to go inside of them.
Continuing our journey we then stopped at the Montezuma Well, which is another 4 miles up the freeway. It’s basically a large hole in the ground which is filled by springs. There are some dwellings left over from the Sinagua on the side of the cliffs bordering the well along with remnants of homesites along the trail.
We saw a dirt road that headed North, and decided to try it, it took us the back way to Beaver Creek, and then on to another paved road heading to Sedona. It was a nice trip, very relaxing and we found a great hotel in the middle of town, walking distance to everything.
Before leaving Sedona we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at L’Auberge which has a nice patio right on Oak Creek. The water is gurgling the whole time and the cicadas were in full force. There’s also a nice trail which runs along the creek on the property. We saw fish, ducks, and even a small snake which I grabbed and tossed back into the rocks… gently.
