After the super fun cowboy dance in the strip mall parking
lot (it really was fun!), Laurel and I arrived at our campsite at about 1
am. We arrived to find Jay
asleep on the picnic table at our site. He
seemed to be comfy in his sleeping bag and enjoying quiet with his ear plugs in, so
we let him be and got ready for a few hours sleep before the hot Arizona sun
hit our tent. Sadly, and kind of
amusingly, our sleep was cut short by rowdy camping neighbors. I assumed they were young adults –
maybe early twenties – based on their conversation and general lack of
awareness that they were keeping about a dozen other people awake and sharing
more personal information than someone ever should in public. After about an hour, I said something
hoping they would realize they were keeping others awake. Some members of the party quieted down,
but one woman seemed pretty angry that I had interrupted her fun, which was kind of
scary….
We eventually got about 3
hours of sleep in the wee morning.
When I was finally brave enough to emerge from the tent, I
discovered that our neighbors were not young people after all. Putting the pieces of conversation
together with Laurel and Jay, we realized that our tent had been sandwiched in
the middle of a psychedelic family reunion. Let's just say they enjoyed the illegal kind of fungi. (Note: this was not a National Park campsite, I repeat not a National Park). As a kind of remittance for keeping us awake, the father of the group offered to
share his sub sandwich with Jay. Ah
camping…
When we had safely extricated ourselves from the campsite, we
headed into Prescott for a big breakfast before Sunday afternoon
adventures. Coffee, eggs and a
waffle did just the trick to wake me up and put me in a good mood for the rest
of the day. After breakfast, Jay
took his own path to do some mountain biking and Laurel and I headed off to
visit Montezuma’s Castle National Monument. Like
Wupatki, Montezuma’s Castle is a pueblo ruin. Unlike Wupatki, it is made of cream-colored sand stone and
situated on the side of a cliff. Despite
the name, Montezuma was never there.
Early explorers mistakenly identified it as a remnant of his
influence in the southwestern United States. Montezuma’s Castle is not to the scale of the more famous
cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, but certainly a marvel. It was fun to look up at the cliff and
imagine what life must have been like for the farmers who worked the fields in
the valley below and climbed up cliff walls and ladders to their homes each
night. It is especially crazy to
consider parents carrying small children in and out of the homes.
To round out our visit of this National Monument, Laurel and
I then visited nearby Montezuma’s Well. The well is a natural wonder, formed long ago by the collapse of a limestone cavern. It used to serve as
a water source in the dry desert climate and is now (and perhaps then…) home to
crazy creatures including water scorpions and leeches. The blue-green water is
very beautiful, but the creatures and algae are too menacing for me to even considering
swimming there. In addition to
serving as the local water source, it was also home to those who carved out
dwellings and lived almost inside the well.
To relax after our National Monument, rodeo and camping
adventures, we decided to visit another swimmin’ hole in Sedona. We stopped for lunch and then searched
for Huckaby Trail - a new-to-us hike to Oak Creek. Because our hike in last Sunday had been pretty easy, we
packed light and Laurel even wore her flip-flops. The hike was beautiful, but there came a point about an hour
in when we started to wonder if we would ever reach the water. And then, when we got there if we would
have time to swim before heading back to beat the darkness. We were also facing Laurel hiking back
in flip flops and me staying hydrated with only a few drops of water left…
With our keen MBA minds and recently gained
geographical knowledge of Sedona, we concocted a scheme to hike out on the
other side of Oak Creek and take a cab back to my car at the Huckaby
trailhead. It seemed like a good
plan until we got to what we hoped would be a swimmin’ hole and had a hard time
finding a place to cross Oak Creek.
One
place looked good – a deep pool with slow moving water, but there were a couple
of guys searching for a wedding ring on the bottom of the creek. We did not want to disturb their hunt, so
we searched for other opportunities.
A guy across the creek helped us at one spot and offered to hold our
hands, but the water was moving very quickly over what looked to be super
slippery rocks. Having watched a
woman get soaked crossing the creek the weekend before, we opted out of that
crossing.
Our only good option
seemed to be the deep pool.
Thankfully, by the time we got back the guys had called off their search
for the ring (not thankfully for them I guess….) so we had free passage
across. With the road across the
river in sight, even if it was hundreds of feet up a trail, we decided this was
a much better option than hiking back and hour and half to the car. Before fording the river, I called a
taxi company to ensure our ride – thank you iphone!
With our plan in place, Laurel stood ready in the chest-deep water while I carried our bags (full of cameras, car keys and
phones) over one-by-one. Chest-deep doesn’t sound bad, but it is pretty nerve racking when you are walking
across moving water with a bag over your head and slippery rocks under your
feet. Despite a little
unsteadiness, our bags and ourselves made it safely across the creek. In addition to our fine MBA minds, we
would also like to credit the game Oregon Trail for teaching us how to safely ford a river!
Despite directions from a local, we got a little
lost on the trail up to the road and enlisted guidance from another local. He kindly led the way and we arrived at
the top just in time to meet our cab driver – an interesting woman who drives a Highlander than looks nothing like a taxi… Even though it was way more than we should have paid, we
were glad to give her $25 when we arrived back at my car at the trailhead. Victory was ours!
On the way home we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and
reveled in another weekend full of adventure!
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