Montezuma Castle and Well, Walnut Canyon and Tuzigoot National Monuments

 We headed up to Flagstaff for a couple days over fall break, visiting a total of six National Monuments. Our first stop was Montezuma Castle.

Me and Matthew with the main cliff dwelling in the background. It was built and used by the Sinagua people between 1100 and 1425 AD.

Close up of the 5 story main structure that includes 45 to 60 rooms.

Arizona sycamore tree bark.

We went up the road to Montezuma Well. 1.5 million gallons of water come through this spring every day. That's a lot of water especially for a desert!

Montezuma Well

Some of the dwellings above the well.

We hiked down to the outlet of the Well. It was nice down there.

Panoramic of Montezuma Well

The Well with the ruins above it (on the left side of the photo).

Melinda and Matthew on the hike back up.

Our next stop was Walnut Canyon National Monument. It was late enough that the main trail was already closed so we hiked along the rim.

Looking down into the canyon.

Close ups of some of the cliff structures.

Me, Megan, Matthew and Sarah taking a rest.

Megan in some of the ruins. (Close up and farther out pictures)

Saturday, we went to Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments.

Sunday morning, we headed back to Walnut Canyon to hike the Island Trail. There are 25 cliff dwelling rooms along the trail and many others that are visible across the canyon that were built by the Sinagua people between 1100 and 1250 AD. It was one of the favorite hikes we took.

Some of the visible ruins.

Matthew, U and Megan in one of the rooms.

Me and U

One of the rooms with mostly intact walls.

View from our hotel room window. Kids enjoyed watching the highway ("There's another truck carrying cars!"), the railroad (they would count the cars) and used the "five dots" (aka the Purina logo) to figure out when we were close to our hotel.

Our hotel from the highway.

We headed home through Oak Creek Canyon.

A look into the canyon.

U, Megan, Matthew and Me at the overlook.

There were these colorful blue birds all around this bush.

Panoramic of the canyon.

We stopped by Tuzigoot National Monument to see the ruins of a 110 room pueblo built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 AD.

A grinding stone in one of the rooms.

Matthew and Me with some of the structure in the background.

Part of the Tuzigoot pueblo.

All in all, it was a nice, quick trip.