March 18th We left Green Valley and drove into Tucson where we did a bit of shopping. We headed directly north on Highway 77 to Globe. We took this highway to avoid getting anywhere close to Phoenix. What a pleasant surprise this road turned out to be. It had very little traffic on it and the scenery was beautiful. A javelina and her baby crossed the road in front of us. We camped this evening in Tonto National Park at the Old School House campground on the shores of Theodore Roosevelt Lake. The lake is created by the damming up of the Salt River. The dam for the lake was built in 1911, and a couple of years ago they increased the height of the dam and built a bridge and this weekend was the celebration of its centennial. Tonto National Monument is just up the road, so we visited the cliff dwellings of the ancient people of Tonto Basin. No one knows why the people migrated from the basin before 1450. We arrived at Dead Horse Ranch Campground about 3 pm and there were only 3 spots left in a campground which has 120 camping spots. We felt very fortunate to get a place to camp here this evening. We went for a walk by the Verde river which runs close to the camp.
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| Tonto National Monument |
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| Tonto Cave Dwellings |
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| Roosevelt Lake |
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| View from Tonto Cave Dwellings |
March 19th Today we drove up to the old mining town of Jerome which is about 8 miles from our camp. Jerome is now an artists community. The shops in town are either galleries or eaterys. A fun town to wander around. We viewed a mine shaft which went straight down 1900 ft. There was a glass platform on top of the shaft that you could stand on and look down into never-never land. Neither of us liked the idea of standing on the glass. On the way back to camp we stopped at Tuzigoot National Monument. Here there is a ruin, which was last occupied in the 1400's, before the inhabitants abandoned the location.
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| Jerome Art Work |
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| Lining up for Hamburgers in Jerome |
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| View From Jerome |
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| Jerome Hillside |
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Tuzigoot National Monument |
March 20th We decided we would have another day of day tripping. This time we drove over to Montezuma Castle, which is about 15 miles from camp. Here there is a 5 level, 20 room building standing in a cliff recess 100ft above the valley floor. It is believed to have been built by the Sinagua culture in the 1100's and abandoned in the 1400's. We then drove to Montezuma Well, which is a limestone sink hole 368ft wide with cliffs of 70ft above the water surface.
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Montezuma Castle |
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| Bee Hive at Montezuma Castle |
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Montezuma Well
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