A Couple of National Monuments (06-10-15)

Although we left Kaibab National Park, we didn’t go all that far.  We first stopped at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.





This is a very young volcano, having erupted just 900 years ago.  The cinder cone that was created stands 1200 feet high, but access to it has been eliminated, due to the severe damage that was being done. 
There are several cinder cones in the area however, and we hiked to the top of Lenox Crater.  It was only a 300 ft long trail, but it was straight up!

The eruption of Sunset Volcano created the Bonito Lava flow, which covers 5 square miles. There are short trails that meander through the lava.

Once we had had our fill of volcanoes, we headed to nearby Wupatki National Monument.

Wupatki is home to several ancient pueblos. This particular one is called Wukoki, which means Large House. People have lived here for over 10,000 years, with the most dense population occurring in the 1100s.

When we glanced over at the horizon, we were reminded that we are at a higher elevation.  Snow!  When we left Havasu, we couldn’t imagine needing a comforter for the bed, but the temperatures have dipped into the 30s!





We slowly started heading back towards Havasu, stopping briefly in the town of Jerome on the way.




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Jerome is an old mining town set on a hillside.  Although the population is about 500 these days, back in it’s glory days, over 15,000 people called this town home.  It was also home to the second largest JC Penney in the store’s chain.


Our intent was to drive over the mountain and spend the night near the town of Prescott. We can’t tow the trailer over this mountain, so we were looking forward to driving it in the camper.




Along the way we stopped to explore whatever took our fancy, and found a campground with an amazing view and we went no further:




This mountain has such a steep drop off that it is a premier location for hang gliding.  We didn’t get to watch anyone jump, but it would have been cool.



Once we eventually made it down the other side, we hit up the local Costco before making our way back to Havasu.

House Update

Nope, no news here.

Tuzi-who? and Déjà Vu

Tuzigoot is the site of the ruins of a Sinagua Indian village, which was an active village for several hundred years, reaching it’s peak population in about 1300 AD.  When archeologists began to excavate the ruins in the 1930s, they had no name for the project.  A Tonto Apache working on the dig suggested  “Tu Zighoot”, the Apache name for “crooked water” because of the nearby river.  The name was adopted, but was spelled incorrectly and mispronounced, resulting in“Tuzigoot”, which has absolutely no meaning at all.

The village consisted of many attached rooms, each of which housed one family.  The rooms were built with stone and mud walls with a combination of wood timbers, reeds and clay for the ceiling.  Instead of doors, the rooms were entered by climbing ladders and coming in through the roof.
   There are many of these villages in the Verde Valley, all of which were built on top of hills, presumably so that the surrounding flat land that was suitable for farming would not be wasted.
The history of this place is so ancient that archeologists and scientists can only guess at why the population left this area in the 1400s.  There is no current Sinagua population left, so their story did not survive the years.


Jerome



   From Tuzigoot we could see the town of Jerome in the distance and since it was early enough in the day we decided to wander over there.  As we drove up the winding hill towards the town, I realized that we had been here before, although neither of us remembered that we had.  I think we were here in 2002 when we took the kids on a trip to Arizona.



Paul and the Ranger looking down Little Daisy, a 1900 ft deep mine shaft.

 Jerome is an old mining town, still surrounded by mountainous piles of tailings, the byproduct of ore mining.  This is a well known “ghost town” that has a larger population now (600) thanks to tourism.  Paul and I wandered the town, poking our heads into many of the small stores, and ate lunch at restaurant in a building that was built in 1898 and still has the original bar stools.
The town we’re staying in is Cottonwood, about 15 miles or so from Sedona, which is one of the places we’ll be exploring in the next few days.  We knew the weather would be coolish here and we were right.  It's downright chilly and the weather forecast isn't looking any better.  The high on Tuesday is supposed to be in the 30s.