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Please click here for Part One
National Treasures
We woke to changing weather, clouds and building wind. We got an early start as we had a lot planned for the day. The parking at Montezuma Castle National Monument was already filling when we arrived on this Friday morning. Pleased that our Geezer Cards still work, we made our way through the visitor’s center and out to the paved trail behind.
The stunning cliff dwelling sits in an alcove above the Verde River.
Just north of Montezuma Castle is Montezuma Well National Monument. A more primitive site with fewer people, we enjoyed our stop here. The feature is not an actual well but a large sink hole that cold fresh water fills.
It has a natural outlet that controls the water level. This outlet has been used for thousands of years for irrigation of cultivated crops. Although improved, the small canal is still used today by native people.
Dwellings are tucked inside the rim.
A short steep trail gives access to dwellings near the natural outlet. The song of red-winged blackbirds filled the air.
Always looking for rock art, we found only modern inscriptions.
The year in the photo below is 1878. George H. Rothrock was a noted early Arizona photographer.
Back up on the rim, a trail took us down to the outlet and to the tiny canal.
Our next stop was the highlight of the day. In 1994 the U.S. Forest Service acquired the historic V bar V ranch property along Beaver Creek, a tributary to the Verde River. On the property are exquisite petroglyph panels. To protect this site the area is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. Docents are present and very helpful. This is a very special place.
For more than 800 years, this area was a large agricultural settlement along Beaver Creek.
The petroglyphs in the red sandstone are breathtaking.
Here’s why the site is called Crane Petroglyphs.
Is this a wolf?
A mountain lion on the back of a deer?
The docent told us this was the most interesting glyph for him – a stick figure man with a bird on his shoulder and a wandering line out of his knee and back into his foot.
He had a series of historical photographs. He also had photographs of how shadows fall across the wall at different dates during the year, such as the summer and winter solstices. It is thought that this stair step glyph is a primitive calendar. When the shadow aligns with the vertical steps, it may signal important activities such as the time to plant crops.
This is a truly special rock art site.
Our next stop was to the west, Tuzigoot National Monument.
The visitor’s center’s architecture wonderfully fit into the site.
The pueblo was excavated and partially reconstructed in 1933 by archeologists using the labor of local out of work miners.
Now late in the afternoon, we needed to search out a place to spend the night. We drove up through Jerome and continued the remarkable drive up Mingus Mountain. Mingus Mountain Road was closed due to lingering snow cover at 7500 feet. A side road was open and we settled into one of the many over used dispersed campsites. Our evening walk on the closed road was the highlight of our stay up here. The road borders a broad mountain meadow. Mule deer are moving back upcountry and were plentiful. We hoped to see elk also, but did not. We were reminded this was a Friday night when, what looked like high school kids probably from the Prescott area, crowded into campsites and built campfires to hang out at. We figured the cold would quiet them and limit their stay. That was the case.
After our early morning coffee walk, we dropped the camper top and drove down to historic Prescott for a store-bought breakfast. This would be a nice change of pace on a Saturday Spring morning. Downtown was quiet. Breakfast at The Raven Café was excellent. Afterward we wandered and took in the centerpiece of Prescott, the county Courthouse.
This was a day of driving. We headed north and intersected with Historic Highway 66. We drove west on 66 and stopped to make lunch at Centennial Park in Kingman. To avoid Oatman, we took the big road to Bullhead City and crossed the Colorado River. West of Searchlight we settled into a dispersed campsite along the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Forest. The wind and gathering storm did not deter us from a long evening walk.
We climbed the highpoints near camp before taking refuge in our cozy, humble abode. The wind blew through the night and we woke to clouds streaming across the sky.
What would this day bring?
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Three.
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