Day #43 - Montezuma's Castle

It’s official, Alice (Tony’s Mom) is sick. She called this morning to tell us she was feeling worse and to go on ahead without her. She put a call in to her doctor and they were going to call in an script that we could pick up at the Walgreen’s in Flagstaff on our way back. We felt bad to leave her at the campground, but the kids were looking forward to seeing the ruins at Montezuma’s Castle.

We had a little bit of a drive to reach the National Monument as it is located between Flagstaff and Phoenix. The cliff dwellings here are some of the best preserved in the country. The cost to get in was $6.00 for adults and free for children under 16. Once again, the America the Beautiful pass paid off! We got in for free.

The visitor’s center has a small display area/museum. There was also a small bookstore and I was able to purchase my sticker for my National Parks passport and get it stamped. Sarah and Abby have started asking for scrap pieces of paper from the rangers so they could add a stamp for their own scrapbooks. Frankly, I am not sure why we didn’t think of this earlier!

There is a small paved walking trail that leads you out to the ruins. There were rangers on the trail to answer questions and one of them had a cart filled with specimens of snakes and spiders and other icky things that kids find so interesting. The perky ranger informed us that last week they had captured a 58 inch long rattle snake. Yikes! She said that when they capture a snake they radio chip them like people do to their house pets so that they can track their movements and what not. She said that this particular snake was one that they had originally captured 10 years ago. She seemed pretty excited about it – some people! I was just excited that they caught it last week and not the day of our visit. She was also kind enough to talk to the kids about the tarantula specimens. She informed them that just a few days ago they captured their first tarantula around the visitor’s center. I began to wonder if I was in a National Park Visitor’s center or an Indiana Jones movie. Anyway, we decided to brave it down the trail to see the ruins.

The Sinagua People built these cliff dwellings over 1,000 years ago. Because they built their homes sheltered high under limestone cliffs they were well protected from the elements and they have remained intact some 600 years after they were abandoned. Pretty impressive if you ask me. There were also some ruins of additional dwellings down below that were not as protected so all that remains is the outline. It is pretty cool to stand there and wonder what life must have been like for these early peoples. Once again I must come to the conclusion that I was born in the right century!

We spent some time walking down to the river to see the remains of the irrigation system the Sinagua created to water their crops. There was a lot of good information for Sarah (and me) as she studied about Native Americans this past year. It really brought it home for her how the different Indian tribes all used what was available to them to build their homes. It was also nice for her to see the permanent structures of a tribe who farmed after having seen the temporary tepees of the plains Indians when we were in South Dakota. Alright, enough of the geeky social studies teacher talk.

It was getting pretty hot and the crew was getting tired and hungry so we hopped in the car and went in search of a late lunch. The kids wanted McDonald’s and since that was pretty much the only game in town, we gave in. We headed back to Flagstaff to pick up Alice’s medicine and to hit a local used bookstore so Tony could pick up a few more books on CD for the remaining drive. I think the man could drive non-stop for days if he had something interesting to listen to on audio book. We stopped in Bookman’s Used books near the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff. Tony sold them the three audio books he had brought with him and he picked up 3 new ones. The kids were thrilled to each pick out a new book for themselves. After we made our final selections, we stopped by Walgreen’s. As I was waiting in line to pay, the cashier was chatting with several people in front of me. They were all talking about how this weather was unseasonably hot for them. Apparently 90 degrees is unusual even for July. It must be us – everywhere we have been on this trip seems to be having unusual weather! We are giving serious thought to going home via Canada so we can cool down a bit.

We arrived back at the campground to find that Alice’s condition had not improved. In fact, she was now running a fever. Hopefully the antibiotics will help her get better soon. After dinner we took a quick dip in the pool, then got everyone bathed and ready for the Grand Canyon tomorrow