Day 5 – Tuesday

A venture into the past

At last… we slept in to 7:30 Mountain Standard Time – Halleluiah! We had decided to take it easy today and explore some of the historical sites around us and learn about the inhabitants of the Verde Valley. We relaxed around the unit and caught up on the happenings of the world and google’d to learn about today’s destination - Montezuma’s Well and Castle.

The two locations are part of the National Park Systems (NPS) and are located about 11 miles apart from each other. They have no connection to Montezuma or anything do with the Aztecs.

As the United States grew and moved west, the new inhabitants thought these treasurers looked Aztec ruins and incorrectly named them Montezuma’s Castle and Well. In fact, they precede the reign of Montezuma by 400 years.

After a very short drive we pulled in a parking lot of Montezuma’s Well next to a small NPS hut where two park rangers were out front greeting people that arrived. One of the rangers gave us a wonderful introduction to what we would see as we hiked around the well and introduced us to the Southern Sinagua people.

As she was talking a bell went off in our heads! The Sinagua people lived and farmed this area from the early 1100s to around 1400. To put things in perspective, as they were developing this area it was the time of the Crusades, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris first stone was laid, Genghis Khan ruled over the largest empire known to man, and the Magna Carta was signed. The Sinagua, or technically the Southern Sinagua people built an advanced city in the sky by embedding it in the limestone mountains. After being fully briefed, we headed up the path to the edge of the well stopping to read all the signs.

Now Janet is one to always follow directions and rules, whereas Tom sometimes will push the limits. However, this sign caught both of our attention, and there was no doubt that the instruction would be followed. Not only would we stay on the path, we would stay in the center of the path! Our paced slow as we surveyed our path in front of us.

Reaching the rim, we were once again flabbergasted!  We were not sure what to expect in front of us from our morning research, but what we found was a beautiful body of water that appeared out of place.

If one turns around, all they will see is desolate lands for miles, with no idea water was so close.

This inviting body of water is anything but a refreshing pool, in fact, it is extremely dangerous. Fed from very deep springs under pressure, the water is forced through layers of subterrain rock. The final layer which is limestone causes the water to be full of Carbon Dioxide. These levels are high enough that fish cannot survive in the water. The water also has extreme levels of arsenic, which is safe to say is very detrimental to human consumption. If that is not enough, it is full of leaches! YUCK!

Also traveling along the rim was a group of preschool aged children with their teacher, a much older women, who was explaining the significance of the well. Ease dropping on the group we learned so much. It was obvious that the teacher was Native American, as she explained the history and legends of the well. Montezuma’s Well was a site for ceremonial rituals as well as the source of irrigation. The Sinagua people built a canal system that spread almost nine miles delivering water to the crops. The water was so high in minerals that overtime it basically made concrete walls for the canal.

The children learned about every plant and tree on the side of the trail, the customs of early indigenous peoples who used the well, all mixed in with a little folklore. Janet and I were blown away as their teacher explained to the small children that when a Sinagua girl’s body changed and she became a woman they would bring the girls to the well to soak in the water. The why to that story is still a mystery.

The cave dwellings that were built into the side of the well’s wall were fascinating, but unfortunately it was some kind of bat’s mating season and we could not go down to the well or see the caves up close.

Well, at least COVID was not the excuse for the closure of the trail to the caves. Wow, an epiphany just struck! The early indigenous peoples were the Sinagua. Modern day Spanish: Sin = Without and Agua = Water. Correlation or coincidence I do not know, but I have been known to over think things.

Next stop would be Montezuma’s Castle which was about a 15 minute drive from the well. Tom had to stop the car to get this shot.

This store was built by the determination of one strong woman. In the height of the depression, Midge Hall Pigman used wood from a hospital that was being torn down and borrowed money from anyone that would finance her to provide a country store to locals. We were not sure if the inventory has ever been turned over since the depression, but the store is definitely an eye catcher as one heads down the road.

Montezuma’s Castle differs from the well visit in that you have to pay to get into this National Park, but it was well worth it. Once again, the site takes one back to the 1100s to a thriving civilization living inside the face of limestone mountains. Standing in front this enormous wall of stone, the architectural skill and brilliance of the people who created this is realized.

The main surviving castle area stands 90 feet up and is on multiple levels. Ladders were used for the inhabitants to traverse the face of the mountains. The castle has over twenty rooms and it is thought that around fifty people lived in this section.

At one time there was a much larger castle area further down the mountain, but only the foundation remains today. It was just awesome walking down the path (and yes still paying attention to the warning on the sign) and looking up at this marvel. In 1951, a Park Ranger built a diorama of the castle.

Along with an audio recording describing the daily life of the Sinagua inhabitants, this learning aide now seventy years old was very helpful in understanding the complexity of this stone dwelling.

Once again, we had gotten so involved in our explorations that lunch had come and gone without us. We began our journey back to Cornville, when we decided to give Page Springs Winery another try. A tasting and a couple of tapas would be a good thing! Pulling into the parking lot, there were very few cars so we parked and headed to the tasting room. Once again, a smiling young lady said, “Great – It will be a 45-minute wait for tasting”. We smiled at her and turned around and walked back to the car shaking our heads. Turning left out of the parking lot towards two other wineries that were not far up the road we left Page Springs behind. Now with a choice of two wineries, we picked Javelina Leap.

Not having a clue what type of animal a Javelina is and do they jump high, we wander into the tasting room, which looked a lot like an old bar, and sat down. A very nice lady poured us a glass of wine and chatted with us for a while. We learned that a Javelina is not in the pig family, but it looks much like a wild boar. Standing around two feet tall and weighing up to fifty pounds, they run in the vineyards at night. Good thing they do not eat fruit! As for the “Leap” in the winery name, it was a play on the California winery – Stag’s Leap. Javelina Leap was one of the early wineries in Arizona. They do grow some of their grapes onsite, but truck in others from SE Arizona. Finishing a wonderful glass of wine, the pourer directed us to a building with covered outdoor and indoor seating, and we opted for the AC indoors.

Each of us ordered a tasting flight and Tom was now a very happy camper as we worked through the wines. All things came to a stop when reached the Tempranillo. Holy Javelina, was it good! Hands down the best wine on our trip. It captured the essence of an old world wine, which most US wines do not. The winemaker’s wife stopped at our table and we told her how much we enjoyed the wines and that the Tempranillo was a real standout. Tom asked, if the winemaker was available, he would love to meet him. A few minutes later, he joined us at the table and humbly accepted our accolades and quietly said thank you, but he had a broken refrigerator that needed attention and he was gone.

Finishing the tasting, we ordered a hot pretzel to stop our growling stomachs. While waiting for our nourishment we were amazed how fast the tables in the tasting room and patio area had filled with people – the place was happening. Out of nowhere, the pretzel showed up being delivered by the bistro chef, no less. Another friendly face who took the time to ensure we were enjoying the wine and that everything was good. She chatted for a few minutes and thanked us for stopping in. What a great afternoon tasting. We had our first wine that would make the trip back to Virginia – A 2019 Javelina Tempranillo.

If you are ever in the Cornville area, we recommend a stop at Javelina Winery and Bistro! It is just down the road from Page Springs… you know the winery with the perpetual 45 minute wait.

The day was getting away from us and we really needed a real meal, so it was off to Cottonwood. Keeping it simple, we grabbed burgers at the local brewery and then headed off to the Sedona airport. Our hope was to get there early enough to get a parking spot below one of the five Sedona Vortex locations to watch the sunset.

We got there, but the vortex parking lot was full so it was up to the airport to watch the event.

The sun reflecting on the red mountains was beautiful! The angle of the sun this time of year does not highlight the mountains in a bright red glow, but all the same it is still very beautiful.

Literally, hundreds of people had gathered to watch the day come to an end. It was a double bonus night! Shortly after sunset, there was going to be a super full moon rising. A super full moon is when the moon is very close to the earth making it larger with a slight red glow. But wait, there is more! Early in the morning, there would be a full eclipse. These two events coinciding is called a Super Flower Blood Moon! The airport hillside was a buzz with these astronomical events. Cameras were everywhere and a selfie was a must!

Unfortunately, the clouds moved in and obscured some of the sunset, but as planes high above our heads soared to their destination, we were happy that we had come here to bring a close to our day.

Turning around from the sunset, the moon had begun to rise in the East.

The moon was huge and totally captivated the group. However, the moon was telling everyone to go home and get some rest for the big event – the Super Flower Blood Moon! The event was scheduled to occur at 4:12 AM Mountain Standard Time. We packed up and returned to the Highlands. Setting our phones to wake up at o’dark thirty, sleep came quickly.