Three weeks on the road and we ain't done yet.  We are now in Flagstaff, Arizona, having driven up from Camp Verde this morning, about 58 miles.  But we tacked on additional miles with sidetrips to Montezuma's Well National Monument, just north of Camp Verde, and Walnut Canton National Monument, just east of Flagstaff.
    We had been to both Monuments some years ago but they both deserved a revisit.
     Montezuma's Well (a few miles from Montezuma's Castle) is a spectacular huge sinkhole, the area of more than a football field but perfectly round, with deep dark water at the bottom.  They say the water is home to thousands of leeches.  But what makes this sinkhole very special is the cliff dwellings built into the interior steep-sided walls.  These go back 800 and more years.  Other dwellings and storage structures were built up on top around the rim of the sinkhole, along with small farm plots.  Populations were large thanks to the ready access to water in the desert environment.  The trails around the sinkhole are excellent.  We highly recommend.
     Walnut Canyon is impressively deep and the rock formations within spectacular.  The vertical canyon walls are pock-marked with cliff dwellings and other structures.  How people were able to climb in and out of these structures, hundreds of feet above the canyon floor, is hard to imagine.  The people belonged to a culture now known as Sinagua, which translates to "Without Water".
     All told, we hiked 3.3 miles today at the two National Monuments.
     Lunch was beer-battered fish tacos at a Del Taco restaurant.
     We will be here in Flagstaff tomorrow and tomorrow night.  At 7,000 feet in elevation, the air is thin here and takes a little getting used to, especially when climbing uphill.  But temps are in the 70s, a welcome change from the 107 we dealt with in the Phoenix area.