MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Montezuma’s Castle National Monument turned out to be a delightful little park with a limited number of Indian ruins, including a small number of dwelling situated inside an alcove in the cliff wall -- a minor replica of the Mesa Verde style of construction. The park also had informative exhibits illustrating the tenuous dependence of the Native Americans on a supply of water to get them through the dry seasons.
MONTEZUMA'S WELL NATIONAL MONUMENT
The second nearby national monument, Montezuma’s Well National Monument, turned out to be a large rock depression which was constantly fed by an underground spring. The Indians had creatively adapted this water supply to irrigate their fields using a clever system of irrigation ditches. These ditches were fed by a steady flow of water escaping from Montezuma’s Well through a fissure in the side of the rock wall. It was a very delightful surprise to hike down the little canyon adjacent to the well and to dip our hands in this cool, constantly flowing channel of water coming out of the well. Since all indications were that this well would have survived the drought back in 1400 A.D., it is puzzling that these ancient pueblo dwellers abandoned their homes around the same time that the Native Americans at Meza Verde and other locations also left this area of the country.
On our way back to our campsite in Camp Verde we were able to enjoy a lovely full moon. We love the moon………The next day we drove up to Sedona for our much anticipated visit. Disappointment. The road leading into Sedona was crowded with traffic (made worse by road construction). The outlet stores and other retail facilities lining the roadway reminded us of many commercial shopping areas back east, thus lessoning whatever magic might have been generated by the red rock formations which we could see here and there to the left and right of the highway. When we got into “downtown” Sedona, we were disappointed to find that the vast majority of the buildings there were small retail shops selling T shirts and souvenirs much like those we had seen in commercial establishments throughout our travels in the last several months. We did, however, have a beautiful few of red rock cliffs from our table in a small café where we had lunch. Even our ride up through Oak Creek Canyon was not as awe inspiring as we had expected, due no doubt in part by the fact that we had seen truly gorgeous canyons and red rock formations repeatedly over the last several weeks. A further downer was that Jo was not feeling well, a possible side effect of the medication she was taking for her rheumatoid arthritis.
SEDONA
The following day, we decided to give Sedona another try. No doubt in part because it was a Sunday, there was much less traffic into Sedona, which got us off to a good start. We took a short walk in the area of a pretty red sandstone formation called Bell Rock, which is supposed to be one of the “energy vortices” in the Sedona area. Alas, we felt no influx of supernatural energy, so we headed down the road for Cathedral Rock for our planned hike up this very attractive red rock formation. The scenery was in fact quite beautiful and the climb challenging but attractive. Jo still wasn’t feeling fully 
recovered, so she stopped half way up and waited till David returned from his climb to the top of the formation. He found the view up there to be very impressive and the surroundings to be quite tranquil since there were very few other hikers up on the summit when he was there. Again, unfortunately, neither of us felt any influx of supernatural energy even though Cathedral Rock was supposed to be another of the “energy vortices” in the Sedona area.
When we then headed to downtown Sedona, we stayed away from the “T Shirt and Souvenir” 
shopping area and instead visited a couple of “New Age” shops on the outskirts of town. Ah, we felt a bit more energy influx here then we had out at the energy vortices. LOL LOL!!! They also had some nice collections of crystals and gems (expensive!!!), but it just is not practical to be buying such heavy souvenirs and carrying them around with us for the next two years. There was also a wonderful little shopping complex across the street which had far nicer merchandise than the T shirt and souvenir shops downtown. This included a couple of galleries full of beautiful photographs of the wonderful scenery in this area of the country.
We were extremely glad that we had given Sedona this second chance, since it left us with a much more favorable impression then we had gotten the day before. We plan to come back again next year, if possible. But we will focus on hiking in the beautiful red rock hills surrounding Sedona and forego exposing ourselves again to the souvenir shops downtown. We will also try to make reservations far enough in advance so that we can stay at the campground in Sedona, which is not too far the “new age” retail shops that Jo found to be so nice.
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