Sedona Day 4

Today we went to Montezuma’s Castle. Its a misnomer, though, because it was never Aztec as the first settlers assumed. Instead it was from the Sinagua Indians. They were cliff dwellers and built into the side of a limestone cliff.

These cliffs had a totally different texture than the red rocks or canyons in Sedona.

The signs were all a little annoying because they asked more questions than provided information. I guess its because there really is very little information available…we don’t know who the Sinagua were, why they built into the cliff, what they really did, why they left, or where they went.

The structure is awesome! Its actually very high up in the cliff, which left us wondering how they got up there, and how they carried stuff up.

All of us in front of Montezuma’s Castle.

Although Montezuma’s Castle is a larger ruin, Castle A was originally a larger structure. Its ruins were closer to ground level, and we could walk up to to them and see some of the walls and stuff up close.

A picture of Castle A:

Both of the ruins in relation to eachother:

After Montezuma’s Castle we went to Jerome. Jerome is supposedly the largest ghost town in America, but in reality there were a ton of people there. Its an old mining town that was once the 4th largest city in America. When the copper mines closed in 1950 the population dropped from over 15,000 to around 50. That’s when it became known as a ghost town. Today around 500 people live there. Most of the buildings are the original buildings from when it was a bit city. We were expecting an abandoned, empty town, but there were a ton of tourists and open shops and stuff.

The above may look like a random picture, but there’s a great tid bit that goes along with it. All the roads to Jerome were narrow and largely unguarded, and Mom kept flipping out, thinking we were too close to the edge. This is one of the edges she thought we got too close to. it looks really scary, but when you get close you realize its not a straight drop but more of a short steep slope followed by some gradual slopes.

V and Mom didn’t want to get out of the car, so they had Dad pull up to the signs so they could read them from the comfort of their seats.

At this distance Jerome looked interesting. Up close it was quite underwhelming.

This is the only really abandoned building we got to look at up close.

Notice the random toilet in the middle of the space.

The history of the abandoned building/ruin.

This picture has a great story behind it. V wanted icecream, and Dad swore he saw a Ben and Jerry’s. So all four of us trekked up this big hill only to find it was actually Paul & Jerry’s Saloon. V was so disappointed, especially when he realized it was a modern day bar.

After Jerome, I wasn’t feeling well, so we came back to the hotel to rest. Turns out I have heat exhaustion and sunburn. Good times. I’m off to bed now, so I can be ready for the grand canyon tomorrow. More soon!