April 3, 2013

Boondocking in Sedona, AZ

Both Monte and I tossed and turned all night.  We really hoped that when we opened the door at 6AM Pumpkin would just be sitting there waiting to come in.  He wasn’t. 

Monte went outside and took pictures of the hot air balloons in the sky.  He also walked around for a while calling out Pumpkin’s name. 

We were going to hang around the site all day but just before lunchtime I suggested we take a ride because sitting around worrying about Pumpkin was just too sad.  I packed us a lunch and we took off. 

Our first stop was for gas at the Giant gas station that we had checked out yesterday as a possible place to dump our tanks when we leave.  

It is going to be a tight squeeze.

       We tried finding the Fairgrounds next because I saw on-line that they had an RV dump station.  We gave up going to check it out when we saw the route we would have to take with the rig.

We also went to check out the Shell Station on 260 because they had an RV dump station that was free with a fill-up or $5.00 without a fill-up.  Monte went inside to inquire if the dump station was still in operation.  He was informed that it would cost $5.00 but was warned that the water doesn’t work sometimes.  Well, all-righty. 

At this point we are still not sure where we are going to dump when we leave. 

The Shell station was only a few miles away from Montezuma’s Castle so we decided to go there today instead of our planned visit later in the week. 

 

 

 

While Monte showed his America the Beautiful Pass at the Ranger’s desk, I stamped my passport. 

      We walked around the displays in the lobby before taking the path pass the “Castle.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the brochure, “Southern Sinagua farmers began building this five-story, 20-room dwelling early in the 1100’s.  It stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley. 

Early settlers marveled at the structure and assumed that it was Aztec in origin, hence the name Montezuma Castle.”

After leaving Montezuma Castle we continued on to Montezuma Well where every day more than 1.5 million gallons of water spring from two powerful vents over 120 feet beneath the surface.  Because of the limestone the water had to flow through, it is saturated with carbon dioxide that fish can’t breathe.  So there are no fish in the well but it is home to five species of life that live nowhere else on Earth-water scorpion, an amphipod, a leech, a snail, and a diatom. 

 

 

We took the steep stairs down to the bottom near the water.  Going down was easy and fast but coming back up I had to take my time because I was having trouble breathing. 

It was only 3pm and we discussed taking a ride into town but we both agreed that we just wanted to go home and, though neither one of us said it, we both were hoping that Pumpkin would be there waiting for us.  He wasn’t.  We decided to walk a couple of miles in different directions keeping in touch by walkie talkie.  No luck.  We haven’t given up on him but realistically, at this point, the only way we will see him again is if he comes back to us.