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Published: March 9th 2008
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Obfuscator writes: We got up fairly early in our campground at Cottonwood, and set out for the areas surrounding Sedona that we had heard so much about. Our first destination was Red Rock State Park. We got there a bit before the visitor's center opened, so we grabbed a map and hit the trails. The views of the surrounding red rock formations continued throughout our hike, as the sun got higher and happily, warmed things up a bit. The formations are quite pretty. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they compare favorably to Bryce Canyon, but they're quite nice, and apparently Sedona is also a great town if you want a small outdoorsman/artist colony.
We ended up following the Apache Fire Trail up to the Apache Fire House. We had no idea what the Apache Fire House was, but were pleased to find a rather interesting, if sad story there. The entire park land (and a lot more in the area) were formerly owned by a TWA executive, and he and his artist wife worked to built a home there. The home was designed such that no two adjoining rooms were on the same level, and it
looks pretty cool from the outside. Sadly, the home is in a state of disarray, and is completely closed to visitors. It was never finished either, as the couple divorced. The house, judging from its location, must have had spectacular views.
We headed back down the trail toward the visitor's center, and walked along Oak Creek for a ways, where it had washed out some small bridges. In the visitor's center, we didn't find a ton of interest, but we did find out that there were some good pueblo ruins in the area, and so we decided to check them out. The Red Rock State Park wasn't really that big, and we felt that we had seen the most interesting views, so we took off.
The first pueblo ruin was back near Cottonwood. It's a large pueblo village called Tuzigoot National Monument, and it's built atop a moderately sized ridge. There's a small museum there with a lot of artifacts from the area, and a good trail system that leads up to the ruins. Mostly what you get to see are the remains of the walls of a multi-tiered pueblo village. The top pueblo has been restored, so
you can go through it, and up onto its roof, from which you can see most of the surrounding valley. The ruins are extremely well preserved, and fascinating. When we left there, we took a short detour into a State Recreational Area just a bit down the road, and hiked around until we found a decent long-view of Tuzigoot, since it was difficult to get an overall view of the site from the road, or close up.
We stopped for lunch at a roadside diner in Cottonwood, where we had burgers and malts that were quite good. The place had sort of a 50s roadside diner vibe to it. It was a bit pricey for what it was, but it was quite satisfying. Afterward, we continued on to Montezuma's Castle National Monument. The site was called this because early discoverers thought that the site must have been built to accommodate and protect the Aztec Emperor Montezuma after his defeat by the Spanish. Montezuma was in fact, never anywhere near it, but the name stuck. Montezuma's Castle is actually two sites right next to each other. One is a low, Pueblo style setup like Tuzigoot, but butted up against a
Cathederal Rock
I think it should be called Jeferson Memorial Rock instead. cliff face. This pueblo village was large enough to house over 100 people. The other is a cliff-dwelling style pueblo village, built high up in natural caves. Though much smaller (probably only about 35 people lived in it), it is an incredible feat of building.
We had a nice talk with a ranger there, who told us a lot more about the site, and we discussed many other topics as well, including the craziness of many tourists who are unprepared for serious hiking. We also met a film director from California, who had made a documentary about the Alaskan wilderness. He was on his way to a screening in Flagstaff, but he gave us the URL for a site where we can watch his documentary, so that is something we have yet to check out. He also told us about an interesting site to the south, on the way to Phoenix, called Arcosanti.
We went a bit north from Montezuma's Castle to a related site called Montezuma's Well. The well is a huge sink in the middle of a mesa. Its depth is about 55 feet, and its over one hundred feet across. The sink is fed by
underground sources, which well up, until it drains out into a nearby river. On the interior of the sink, there are more cliff-dwelling ruins, most of which you can't get very close to. The water has CO2 in it, so no fish can live in it, but it does have a fairly vibrant, and unique ecosystem of algae and other little critters. The bright blue green pool stands in beautiful contrast to the rest of the surrounding desert terrain.
We set off for Arcosanti, which calls itself an “Urban Laboratory,” but it was closed by the time we got there after 5:00 PM. From what the film guy and his friend told us, it was a 70s experiment in urban planning and sustainability. It seems to be a small community built in a commune style complex of interlinked buildings. The concept largely seemed to mimic the pueblo dwellings, and build vertically rather than sprawling outward as most modern cities have done. It looked like it would be a really great site to learn more about, but we pressed on to Phoenix, where after a bit of confusion, we found a campsite on the outskirts of town.
Amusingly enough,
we pulled in next to an RV from Wisconsin. The couple who we met were from Delevan, and had their son in tow, who had gone to college at Oshkosh, and was also named Onaxthiel. Now tell me, what are the odds of meeting people from Wisconsin who have a son who lived in Oshkosh named Onaxthiel? CRAZY! Actually, the odds aren't too bad, as we discovered that the Brewers do their spring training in Phoenix, and that was what had brought them there. Still, we felt we were in good company for the night, even if the county park facilities left much to be desired, with their shabby bathrooms and poor interior lighting.
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Michelle
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Strange Coincidences
Wow, that is pretty amazing.... maybe even a little scary. Plus I had no idea that Onaxthiel was such a common name.