Montezuma's Castle, Well & Tuzigoot National Monuments

We are now staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. This a large open campground with lots of sites. We had the choice of hook ups or no hook ups at this park. There were several levels to the campground and not all of them were open.

They did offer horseback riding but we elected not to do this at this time. Our site was a nice
large one which backed up to a hill and the horses went by every day on their trails.

One day we headed out to see the sites and one of the places we went was to Tuzigoot National Monument. This is a place where the Sinagua Indians lived in the 12th century.

The had dwellings made of rocks and sand and these small units held quite a few people inside.



Look at all the sections of this place. Some units were for housing and some were for storage
of food.

We also went to Montezuma Well which was 11 miles from the Montezuma Castle National Monument. This was truly an awesome site. The Sinagua Indians inhabited this area also.

This is Montezuma's Castle National Monument. The Sinagua indians lived here up in the dwellings. Using ladders to enter through small openings. There are several levels to this housing and it had twenty rooms. They lived here approximately 1000 years ago. No one knows why they left this area and kept moving on to other areas.

We had a great time visiting these places and hope someday everyone will get out and visit

our nation's fabulous national parks and experience and learn about our countries history like we are having the opportunity to do.

See ya down the road!