Montezuma Castle and Well

This post is part of On the Road Again Day two. The other day the post button was pushed and the post was not complete, so this post is going to complete the one picture only post of “On the Road Again Day Two”.

After see the Amboy crater we drove another two hours to Lone Tree BLM campground and swung by the London Bridge the next day. After taking a stroll we stopped by “The Local Grind” and grabbed a couple bagels and coffee. The service here was friendly and quick. They have a screened in balcony overlooking the London Bridge and the river.

The town had these Phone booths strategically placed throughout the walkway for picture opportunities. The three kids and I had fun squeezing into it and having our picture taken. It was early morning when we went so not a whole lot of the store fronts were open yet and it was not crowded at all. As we were leaving things were starting to bustle and liven up.

We arrived at the Williams KOA at around 1:30pm set up the camper ate lunch and took off an hour and a half up the road to Montezuma Castle. Afterward we took a 10min drive to the Montezuma Well.

Montezuma Castle is the third national monument established in 1906. This castle was built up in a limestone hill and is big enough to hold 20 rooms in it. The natives used ladders to climb up and down to either tend to the gardens or carry the produce up to store or prepare food. They built the castle in the limestone to stay up off the ground when floods occur. Below is a link with more information about the Castle

https://www.nps.gov/moca/index.htm

We strolled around the monument and discovered identification plaques talking about the plant life and the different uses for each plant. Some of these plants were used to just eat and some were used for medicinal purposes. There was one tree used as a surfactant for laundry and bathing soap. Below are images of plaques that are around the perimeter of the walkways explaining the uses of the plants. (No idea why but I did not take pictures of the plants themselves to go with the plaques).

We arrived at the Montezuma well a half an hour before it closed. It was amazing to discover that there were living quarters in the well as well. This placed switched owners several times before it became part of the national park services in 1947. Below is a link going more deeply into the history of Montezuma well.

https://www.nps.gov/moca/planyourvisit/exploring-montezuma-well.htm

There are boards along the rim of the well explaining how the well works and what lives in the water. Leeches for one are able to survive and algae. People have tried to put fish in the water but they always died soon after being release.

I hope you all enjoyed this post. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful day.