This was but one stop on a day trip that took us to Montezuma Well. Caroline had been curious about this place after I told her about it on one of my solo trips, and so here we are. This flow from the Well travels through a crack and down to an irrigation canal below.

On the left is a small cliff dwelling that was once occupied by the Sinagua people, who are likely also responsible for the dwellings in Wupatki and Walnut Canyon, where we’ve also been.

These petroglyphs at the V-Bar-V Ranch near Sedona are also artifacts left by the Sinagua. The site can only be visited Friday through Monday.

With some nice weather and no sign of latent monsoons on the horizon, we opted to travel a back-road dirt trail around Humphrey’s Peak instead of taking the more direct route to our next destination.

Will we ever tire of looking out over a landscape knowing that not very long ago, lava was flowing here? It was only about 1,000 years ago that this area was active along with a flow that entered the Grand Canyon north of here. We are at Sunset Crater Volcanic National Monument.

It’s kind of strange that in these 1,000 years, the relentless pounding of time and weather hasn’t turned this lava rock to dust to allow the soil to develop that might support a field of wildflowers.

Seeing we appear to be following in the footsteps of the Sinagua, another visit to the ruins at Wupatki National Monument seems in order.

Caroline and I first visited Wupatki shortly after we moved to America on a visit with Ruby and Axel. Someday I’ll scan those old photos and negatives and will hopefully remember to link them here. Our first visit in the age of digital photographs was back in October of 1999 with some other friends; you can see that blog post by clicking here.