Before we left the campground in Verde Valley, we had two last monuments to visit. The first was Montezuma’s Castle in Camp Verde, AZ. This is a 900+ year old five-story Sinagua cliff dwelling that was built into the limestone cliff to avoid flooding from the river below. We weren’t able to go up to it but it was really cool to see from afar. There was a small-scale model on the path that had the front walls removed so we could see the layout of the structure and how the tribe would have used the rooms. The kids were pretty interested and started to think the RV looks really nice! I was also really entranced by the beautiful Sycamore trees at the base of the cliff and the unique bark pattern.

One of our friend’s looked up the name and we learned that Montezuma actually has nothing to do with this site. Early American settlers incorrectly assumed it was built by the Aztec. After it was discovered that this dwelling was completely unrelated, the name had already stuck. The more you know!

The second site was Tuzigoot National Monument. This is another Sinagua tribe dwelling, made of limestone. This one is interesting because like Montezuma’s Castle, this dwelling made heavy use of ladders. Rather than doors in the rooms, inhabitants would have entered the rooms via ladders and holes in the roof. It’s interesting walking through the ruins and not seeing doorways. Overall I think this site was nice to visit, but we probably won’t return.