Montezuma Castle National Monument

July 31, 2023

This site is completely mis-named as Montezuma lived well after these ruins were abandoned and he probably never visited or even heard of them. The ruins are a short walk from the visitor center and are super popular with tourists. Not surprising, as the cliff dwellings are incredibly well preserved from 1100-1350 AD approximately. The visitor center has a small museum of artifacts discovered from additional dwellings on site but none from the main castle as everything had been looted prior to being protected by the park service. There is a lesser visited site within the park that is Montezuma Well and is about a 20-minute drive from the castle ruins. There is a paved path that leads around most of the well which is a deep hole full of water from a spring that runs all year. More ruins are along the inside of the cliff and unrestored next to the well. The path leads down to where the water flows underground out of the well to a creek. By the time I was done with all three monuments today, it was about 11am and the soles of my sneakers were literally falling off. One was flapping badly and the other was completely detached. I guess the extreme heat disintegrated the glue that holds the bottom of the shoe on.