Arizona!

We have settled into a four day stay here at a Thousand Trail Campground in Cottonwood, AZ.  It is by far, the largest we've been in.  The pool is a mile and half away.  We are very close to a closed-in dog park, though.  I just need to get the dogs to stop barking when a new visitor arrives.  One lady just laughed-she had three dogs-and let her brood in and we had a good romp.  One may turned up his nose and went the other way.  So now I carry the water bottle.  Leinen doesn't bark like he used to when we would see other dogs while walking on lead.  I have a pocket of treats.  All I have to say is "No Bark"  He looks at me and gets a treat. and ignores the other dog, even if that dog is barking.

I still need more knowledge on rattlesnakes before I am too comfortable walking around.  I'm sure it is no big deal, just be cautious like moose and bear in AK.

Today's adventure was going to 3 National Monuments.  After church.  The park had a non-denominational service that lasted 35 minutes and had 16 attendees, including the pastor.  We sang out of hymnals without musical accom.  A gecko went walking through the middle of the service.  Here is a picture of our view.

I suppose I could have zoomed in more.  

 Richard pointed out the large grasshopper here.  I didn't even see the gecko until after I was done taking the picture and it skittered off.  Here is also a picture of a goon crawling out of the prickley pear cactus. 

 After church we headed for the monuments.  Our first stop was Tuzigoot.  Don't ask me to pronounce it.  This was a dwelling that was lived in about a thousand years ago.  I think they were here for 400 hundred years and moved on.   No one knows why.  To get some very good details about this place, go to Richard's blog.  https://blog.machida.us/  He writes very well, I just snap 40 pictures.  Like the plant and bug below.  If you brush up against it, thorns will stick to you.  I didn't even want to breath around it.  They looked nasty! 

 There was a nice, small visitor's center.  Since Richard is the age to have a lifetime membership to National Parks, Monuments, and other places, we didn't have to pay.  What do you think about when you look at this pottery?  This group of people had plain pottery.  I look at them and think what a great puzzle to put together!  Would you be up to the challenge?  There was black and white pottery, and colored gems/jewelry that they thought had been traded.  The chairs had no signs or explanations, they were just cool. 

 Here is a picture of the dwellings from below.  There were many rooms.  We could actually walk around and in this place.  Richard is the dot on the left.  There was a ranger at the top ready to take questions and give tall tales.  For example, he said there were vortexes in nearby Sedona ready to send me to another place.  Way off in the hills if you enlarge the picture, you might see the letter "J."  That stands for Jerome, AZ.  I asked him about the community in the hills.  The ranger said that it was once a mining community up there.  It closed down in the 50's and everyone left, leaving it to ruin.  Years later a hippie group from California came in an renovated and revived Jerome.  Now it is an artsy community.

 This was taken from the top of the dwelling, looking down to where I was standing in the above picture.  There was a talk going on about the red macaw.  She was saying that there were thousands of remains of this and another type of macaw found here.  One thing that shows is these birds from Mexico were probably used as trading items. 

 Our next stop was Montezuma's Castle.  This was actually built before Montezuma's birth, and isn't a Castle.  Someone just called it that, and it stuck.  I really liked the shaded walkway.  You can see Richard has once again walked ahead of me.  I think we have finally come to an understanding.  I like to stop and take pictures of insects, flowers, birds, trees.  He doesn't like waiting for me as I do that.  However, he has learned that when he gets to the place of interest to wait for me.  I have a need to feel connected, if he waits for me, then I don't feel abandoned. 

 You don't have to tell me more than once to stay on the trail!

 And here is Montezuma's Castle.  Sadly, in the early 1900's so many people were climbing in and around these dwellings that they lost all of the cool stuff like pottery and pieces of the walls.  This had many floors and rooms.

 This castle supported by the sycamore tree.  This is the Arizona sycamore.  It's wood is so strong they used it for supports in their dwellings, and the wood is still there!  Such a pretty tree.  Richard noticed the cool colors of the bark. 

 In the gift store there are these beautiful woven baskets for sale.  About $139.00 each.  Or you can purchase a kit for around $30. to make your own.  Reminds me of the baskets in AK, and the baskets in Ethiopia.

 Alaskan Basketa
 
Ethiopian Baskets. 
     Maybe a new hobby-collect pictures of baskets from around the world.  The Alaskan and Arizonan baskets all over $100.00,  Ethiopia-$20?

 Last stop was Montezuma Well.  A very interesting place.  When I saw pictures of it I though it was on a flat plain down low.  It is a well.  BUT to find out, you climb a small hill to arrive there.  Thousands of gallons of water flow up into and out of it daily.  Amazing! 

 I was side tracked going up the hill by this very interesting bush.  The hill side was covered in this bush with light yellowish flowers. 

 Here is a type of juniper tree I found along the walkway.  This was taken looking down.  Then I found this interesting sign.  I want to know what animals and plants are found here that you don't find anywhere else in the world!  Don't just leave me a teaser! 

 More Arizona looking stuff.

 And here it is.  WOW.  They said it was 55 feet deep.  It is about 100 yards across.  Now if I lived in this era, I'd probably have lived in the side here, lake front property!  But don't drink the water!  Too much arsenic.

 Here are 2 panoramas I took of Montezuma's well, taken from two different spots.

 The trail was a loop.  There was a path going down to where the well drains into a river.  It was dark going down, but this picture doesn't show it.  I was a little afraid of snakes and spiders, so I just went down 3 feet.  lol.

 Here's the explanation of the plant with the yellowish flowers!  I could smell it.  And I end today's post with this little purple flower all by itself. 

 Thanks for reading, remember to go read Richard's post for more details!