Friday, February 15, 2008

Ruins, Rock Art, and Red Rocks

All of these are prevalent in the Verde Valley of Arizona - the area we are calling home right now. We have had several amazing day trips and a spectacular "red rock sunset".

These pictures show cliff dwellings of the Sinagua People who lived in this area 1500 years ago. This is known as Montezuma Castle although it has nothing to do with Montezuma and was certainly not a castle; but it is very impressive.
This is Montezuma Well (again Montezuma had nothing to do with this area). It is located a few miles from the castle and is really a limestone sinkhole.
This is part of an irrigation system still intact more than 1000 years later.When the Sinaqua (means "without water") left this area, sometime around 1400 AD, they left not only their homes, but petroglyphs and pictographs. We visited two cultural sites that have amazing rock art. Palatki is an area we visited several years ago with Rich and Anita. We all fondly remember the jeep ride over the rough roads to get there. Well, time changes things and now most of that road is paved. It seems a housing development went in and the residents paid to have the road paved; somehow, it just didn't seem right to travel a paved road to this "back in time" site. Anyway, the rock art was still intact.These are just two examples from the Palatki Cultural Site. You may have to study the first picture awhile to see all the drawings.
It is amazing to be able to put your hands in the handprints of those who lived so long ago.
At the Honanki Site, the art is more diverse and what is left of the dwelling is much larger. The road to get to this location is 10 miles of unpaved "for high clearance vehicles only" and it was a fun ride!

Along the side roads, we spotted this "western scrub jay". We also spent some time wandering around by "Beaver Creek" where the red rocks almost look artificial against the blue water. And one late afternoon, we drove to Sedona to catch the sunset.
The sky all around us was amazing!Arizona is a truly diverse and beautiful state... but soon the lure of easy money will pull us to Nevada... or maybe it is the sound of race cars...

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