I first head of Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well back in the early '80s. And we've driven by the signs on many occasions as we headed north or south along Interstate 17 in Arizona. On this trip to the Flagstaff area we made it a point to visit these two locations. Montezuma Well is actually an outlying unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument. The two sites are just a few miles apart and were both populated by the people of the Sinagua culture.

On this day we first tried to visit the V Bar V Heritage Site, which is just four miles north of Montezuma Well. But we found it closed for the day. So we drove on south to the Well.

10:06 a.m.
The parking area at Montezuma Well is at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): N34 38.916; W111 45.263; at an elevation of 3,562 feet. The air temp is 79 degrees.

There are modern pit toilet restrooms here, as well as a small entrance station occupied by a Forest Service Ranger. I didn't notice any drinking water available to the public. As we entered the Ranger pointed out several walking sticks crawling up the sides of his building. They were larger and gray in color, different from the thin tan walking sticks we've seen in Utah. We picked up a trail guide and walked up to the well area.

10:59 a.m.
We finished the .3 mile walk around Montezuma Well in just under an hour. This included the short side trip down a short trail to below the rim where there were more cliff dwellings and an interesting feature that they call a swallet cave. This small opening in the cliff side allows the spring water from the well to pour into an underground passage, where it travels for several hundred feet to a point where it exits on a cliff face just above Beaver Creek.

I guess I should explain the "the well" is a circular depression in the earth, probably about 100 yards across, with perhaps 100 foot cliffs all around it. The water in the well comes up from deep springs below its surface. There are also several prominent cliff dwellings adhering to the cliffs above the well. The rim trail leads to an overlook with a great view of the main set of dwellings.

After we climbed back up from inside of the well we continued along the rim trail past several unreconstructed pueblos on top. There appears to be several separate units in this area. After that we came to a set of stone steps that lead down a short side trail into the canyon along Beaver Creek. This is a nicely shaded area, with interesting sycamore trees and close up views of the cliff face. The trail dead ends at the spot where the water pours out of the other end of the swallet cave. Along this area we could see several feet of the original irrigation canal used by the Sinagua to capture the cold, clear water. We also spotted a large squirrel eating seeds and a thin brown constrictor snake sliding into a hole in the rock wall. Back on top the trail loops back to the parking area.

11:27 a.m.
From Montezuma Well we drove the few miles to Montezuma Castle National Monument. The parking lot there is at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): N34 36.687; W111 50.338; at an elevation of 3,199 feet. This is the better known and, I would guess, the more visited of the two units. There is a nice Visitor Center here, with several rangers on duty, informational displays, a gift shop and book store, modern restrooms, and drinking water. This is a fee area, so we used our Golden Eagle pass.

12:34 p.m.
We spent about an hour walking the short paved loop trail that leaves the Visitor Center and passes beneath the main “castle,” or cliff dwellings, and also past what is called “Castle A.” The main ruins look like they are glued to the side of the cliff, high up above. The Castle A ruins are similar to others we’ve seen, including the Elden Pueblo site. These ruins seem to have quite a collection of manos and metates and are surrounded by some magnificent sycamore trees. There were quite a few visitors on this day, but it wasn't packed. We could move along pretty much at our own pace.

After we finished our little tour we grabbed our picnic stuff and found a table down by the creek under some sycamore trees. There are quite a few sturdy tables in this picnic area. While we were eating it rained briefly, but not enough that we had to move. While we ate we watched a squirrel play around the tables.