The Great Southwest Road Trip - Sedona to Tucson
I reluctantly left Tucson after two wonderful days. If Harley and Lee had not been leaving the day after I did for their vacation in Montana, I would have stayed longer. However, I hit the road early for Tucson where I planned to visit with my long-time Dallas friend Gib (a fellow Aggie and singing cadet Neil) and his partner Ben. More on them later.
I was planning to go to an ancient cliff dwelling just south of Sedona off I-17 called Montezuma Castle, but Lee suggested I stop first at the V-Bar-V Ranch heritage site. V-Bar-V was a working ranch for over 100 years in the Verde valley, and it is distinct as it is also the site of ancient native petroglyphs that originated with the Southern Sinagua natives who lived in that area around 1100-1400 AD, then they migrated north to join with natives there to form what became the Hopi. I was lucky enough that the day I was there was one of the 4 days a week the site is open to the public and enjoyed an interpretive tour of the site and the story of the petroglyphs and how significant they were to the Sinagua. They include solar calendar that points out the planting and harvest seasons, a lunar calendar with several fertility images, and a shaman that stands as a guard next to a crack in the rock that is thought to be a portal to the underworld where the Sinagua people emerged from the earth, and where the Hopi also believed they came from.
Petroglyphs!
The volunteer guide at the site - he was a really nice man, retired from the National Park Service where he had been a ranger at a National Park monument site also near Sedona.
Not an alien, but an image of a shaman guarding the surface from the underworld.
The crack to the right is the reported point of origin for the Sinagua and Hopi.
I drove the relatively short distance from this site on to Montezuma Castle, a cliff dwelling also from the Sinagua period. The structures are original, as opposed to the re-built ones at Mesa Verde National Park, so the authenticity of what I was seeing, along with the stop at V-Bar-V where I got the history of the area made for a nice short stop. That is to say, it is not a huge place, but impressive nonetheless.
A close up view...
And a view from further back for perspective, this one from the iPhone. I noticed the trail system up to the dwelling was really steep, and would have included a number of ladders originally. Still, the thought of having to climb up and down just boggles me.
The rest of the day to Tucson was uneventful, save for passing through Phoenix in the early mid-afternoon. I thought Dallas traffic was bad. it was insane getting around there and then the drive on to Tucson was weird. One moment, I-10 was three lanes, the next it was two, then back to three. It made for a bit more stressful drive than I had anticipated. I arrived at Gib and Ben's in the later afternoon where I unloaded, relaxed, shared dinner, then crashed. The good thing was that although I had been horrible by eating a ginormous Del Taco burrito for lunch on the northern edge of Phoenix, my glucose level was an outstanding 92 mg/dL when I tested pre-dinner. It was great to share a meal with Gib and Ben again. I had house-dog sat for them many times over the years prior to their move due to Gib's transfer with Raytheon, and I had missed them terribly. We keep in touch by Facebook and text, but it just is not the same thing at all.
I was planning to go to an ancient cliff dwelling just south of Sedona off I-17 called Montezuma Castle, but Lee suggested I stop first at the V-Bar-V Ranch heritage site. V-Bar-V was a working ranch for over 100 years in the Verde valley, and it is distinct as it is also the site of ancient native petroglyphs that originated with the Southern Sinagua natives who lived in that area around 1100-1400 AD, then they migrated north to join with natives there to form what became the Hopi. I was lucky enough that the day I was there was one of the 4 days a week the site is open to the public and enjoyed an interpretive tour of the site and the story of the petroglyphs and how significant they were to the Sinagua. They include solar calendar that points out the planting and harvest seasons, a lunar calendar with several fertility images, and a shaman that stands as a guard next to a crack in the rock that is thought to be a portal to the underworld where the Sinagua people emerged from the earth, and where the Hopi also believed they came from.
Petroglyphs!
The volunteer guide at the site - he was a really nice man, retired from the National Park Service where he had been a ranger at a National Park monument site also near Sedona.
Not an alien, but an image of a shaman guarding the surface from the underworld.
The crack to the right is the reported point of origin for the Sinagua and Hopi.
I drove the relatively short distance from this site on to Montezuma Castle, a cliff dwelling also from the Sinagua period. The structures are original, as opposed to the re-built ones at Mesa Verde National Park, so the authenticity of what I was seeing, along with the stop at V-Bar-V where I got the history of the area made for a nice short stop. That is to say, it is not a huge place, but impressive nonetheless.
A close up view...
And a view from further back for perspective, this one from the iPhone. I noticed the trail system up to the dwelling was really steep, and would have included a number of ladders originally. Still, the thought of having to climb up and down just boggles me.
The rest of the day to Tucson was uneventful, save for passing through Phoenix in the early mid-afternoon. I thought Dallas traffic was bad. it was insane getting around there and then the drive on to Tucson was weird. One moment, I-10 was three lanes, the next it was two, then back to three. It made for a bit more stressful drive than I had anticipated. I arrived at Gib and Ben's in the later afternoon where I unloaded, relaxed, shared dinner, then crashed. The good thing was that although I had been horrible by eating a ginormous Del Taco burrito for lunch on the northern edge of Phoenix, my glucose level was an outstanding 92 mg/dL when I tested pre-dinner. It was great to share a meal with Gib and Ben again. I had house-dog sat for them many times over the years prior to their move due to Gib's transfer with Raytheon, and I had missed them terribly. We keep in touch by Facebook and text, but it just is not the same thing at all.