Before heading into Sedona we headed east to this National monument. Both it and Tuzigoot are quite close to Cottonwood, so make for a convenient start of the day. "Montezuma" is a fanciful name left over from misconceptions of early explorers and settlers, conflating indigeneous peoples of the Southwest with those in what is now Mexico, in particular the Aztecs. Has an exotic ring to it, though.
Unlike at Tuzigoot visitors have to pass through the visitor center to see the ruins. Pay to see, no sneaking past.
Teddy Roosevelt was big on preservation.
Path leading to the viewing site. The public can no longer access the cliff dwelling - years of tourists were literally loving it to death. A common enough story.
Building this dwelling required a high level of engineering expertise for what it is. This does not come spontaneously from growing corn and snaring rabbits. Perhaps one can say that humans are genetically disposed to build, the bigger and more complex the better. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was completed in 1200 CE. This cliff dwelling was begun in 1250 CE, with expansion and maintenance continuing until 1400 CE. Between then and 1450 it was gradually de-peopled. By the time of Columbus it had been vacant for years.
Adobe bricks, stone and mud mortar and this thing didn't just collapse of its own weight and sloosh down the cliff face. The building process can only be described as tedious (and dangerous).
Another sunny, not too warm day.
Facing the " castle", to the left is another multi-room complex, only built from the base of the cliff up.
If you expand the above sign you can see that there were 5 levels of cliffside dwellings here, almost all of which have disappeared. Very impressive in its own right.
Some footings of the first level remain. Rampant looting, vandalism and just carelessness didn't help.
Information on the castle.
Inside the visitor center - as is typical, very informative displays.
All during our visit this gentleman was wafting the plaintive, hypnotic notes of what Pam and I call "Peruvian flute music" into the canyon air, where it echoed from the walls and at times seemed to emanate from on high, from the castle itself. Pam dropped a dollar in his basket, much to Norm's approval.
Pam spotted these in the gift shop. It's all over now.
Gift counter personnel provide a plastic insert so that tryouts do not cause the flute itself to be slobbered on by testers. The notes created by Pam were indeed haunting.
Starbucks and "the world's largest Kokopelli" together at last, fertility symbol and caffeine as one.
The Fit and Kokopelli getting cozy..
A few minutes later, we drove by a colorful Kokopelli. This guy really is fertile - with himself.
Couldn't take it anymore - with rain no longer part of the equation we bit for an $8.00 "silver" level car wash. Like new again. Norm just opened the sunroof...thank goodness he remembered to close it on the way through.
A premium shopping plaza in downtown Sedona beckons with lots more eye candy. This is worlds away from humble, hundreds of years old Ancestral Puebloan pottery in a visitor center that has been patched together from pieces. Worlds away.
One of the avenues in the shopping plaza.
Something religeous going on here?
Lots of courtyards with fountains, most of them lavishly decorated for the fall season.
So many beautiful "things". Money aside, it takes a great deal of will power to not give in to the primal urge to possess. Or perhaps it derives from this material age. Whatever. But taking photos helps keep the fingers busy and the mind distracted. It's just that there is so much darn talent and creativity in evidence that you want to swim in it. Let's rent a storage unit!
This guy's acquisitive days are long past. This a cast of a monster head found in China. Why is it here?
"Inner Eye" is code for New Age stuff.
Light-as-a-feather gourds - Pam loved the one on the upper right with a large Ammonite.
The bear is inviting us to come in and BUY!
The rabbit looks alot like one that Pam kissed the nose of in the Santa Fe Old Town Plaza. One thing we have observed is that art we thought of as one-off was, in fact, more of a clone. As for rabbits, they've been known to multiply.
Norm tryng to gather some water to bring home to Gold River. Mmmmmm - wet. Norm now has a sweatshirt on and Pam her pink jacket because the temperature for some reason dropped about 10 degrees.
Pam is a horse whisperer. He looks pretty happy to see her.
Lots of whirlygig things that turn in the wind for sale here. Yes, the metal item next to Norm also turns.
Pam is telling Norm its either a dog or a bear - his choice.
Sort of New Agey.
Pam found a bead shop
Lunch on the patio at El Rincon. Pam pronounced the rolled chicken quesadilla as the best she had ever eaten. Norm went into his usual rant about how the heck anyone can throw decades of quesadillas (or fill in any other food here) eaten with relish under the bus simply because this one happens to be fortunate enough to be one the currently being masticated? You love the one you're with? Can all but a very few people really compare food previously eaten, particularly years before, with what's fresh in the mouth in the here and now? Norm's philosophical food musings merely caused Pam to chew faster, with a faraway look in her eyes.
We missed this by two days. First missing the annual balloon festival in Albequerque and now a festival celebrating the dead. Will our luck never change?
The art certainly seems lively enough.
How art is created.
In the center of the plaza is this small church. Norm respectfully removed his hat and prepared to enter this solemn sanctum....
Aaaack! Where"s the garlic?
This is the point at which we give our impression of Sedona. Its geographic location in the Red Rock part of the Verde Valley provides it with absolutely stunning surroundings. It has lots of really rich people, either residents or visiting. It has a small city feel, is easy to get around in and the Wal Mart where Pam bought some red licorice swizzle sticks (a great road snack) seemed typically down to earth. But Sedona is also an artist haven and this vibe is evident all over. The other vibe is New Age with a capital "NA". Across from the high-end plaza we visited was this building. Californians of a certain ilk and age will be quite comfortable here.
"Superstore" does sound a bit off.
If the above psychic is not to your liking, here is a wall of them, plus spiritual healers and others. Their business cards are lined up below the photos.
It's the wise beard that clinches it.
The Trumps have finally found the Christmas gift their friends want most - airfare to Sedona not included.
The UFO Center sort of hangs off the end of the building, complete with several mummified aliens abducted from Roswell for authenticity.
Higher rent building, but with a similar selection of offerings: Drums and Flutes; Singing Bowls; Aura Photos; Crystal Bowls. But it's no more goofy than believing that some invisible entity is somewhere out there micromanaging our lives, judging our actions and interceding in our earthly lives. Different strokes.
Pam found another bead shop - hurrah.....now we can write off the trip!
We could not leave Sedona without experiencing a "Vortex". There are several Vortex locations in and around the city and we selected the Airport Overlook for the experience.
We and others of like mind gathered at sunset to listen to the Harmony of the Spheres, or Commune with the Essence of Life, or just check out the spectacular view with our binoculars.
This sign posted at the site - an official U. S. Forest Service document - announced that, here, the Vortex was all around us - an energy flow that once having experienced it, neither Pam nor Norm have the words to describe.
Norm, seeking a material manifestation of the Vortex in all the wrong places. The woman standing behind him was real New Age and spoke as such to her nearby accolytes.
This is all that Norm saw.
Pam also seeking the elusive Vortex, hoping that being slightly elevated would give her a better chance at spotting it.
But this is all that Pam saw, just some mountains and empty sky bereft of all meaning.
Still, the proof is in the pudding and it's quite obvious that, though unseen, the Vortex worked its magic on the Travelin' Twosome.
We drove a mere 91 miles today.
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