Montezumas Well

Our first stop on our way home last week was a portion of the Montezuma's Castle National Monument that we hadn't seen before.  It's not far from Sedona, AZ.  We had visited Montezuma's Castle a number of times but never went further up the highway to the Well.  It's really quite amazing and well worth the stop and the 1/3 mile hike uphill to the well.

The ancient people carved homes and storage chambers in the stone
walls surrounding the well.  Archeologists have repaired, but not
rebuilt, some of the ruins.

This explains the well and how it came to be.  It is over 10,000 years old
and even in times of severe drought the well has never been without a constant
subterranean supply of water.  The actual water is from rain and snow that fell
over 10,000 years ago and worked it's way into channels underground.  There are two vents at the
bottom of the well that keep the well freshened.  

Wherever I went this handsome man was there,
taking pictures and carrying someone's camera
case!  I brought him home with me :)

Montezuma's Well

If you can enlarge this enough to read it, you will note that "Without fish the Well does not have usual lake dynamics.  This unque habitat is home to creatures found nowhere else on the planet, and swimming leeches are major predators. High levels of carbon dioxide make life impossible for fish, amphibians and some aquatic insects  The Well is the world's only home for five species". 

There are the remains of an ancient Pueblo still standing in the area.

And there's that man again, with the cliff dwellings in the background.

He likes to take pictures of me...and trees.

These steps cut into the rock lead from the top of
the cliff down to the bottom and the water.

 This site is truly like no other.  It's beautiful and peaceful, yet teeming with scientific wonder and mystery as well as the spirits of the ancients who built their homes above this natural wonder.  A must-see if you're ever in Arizona.