Day 42: Photograph With Reverence

Day Forty-Two: Photograph With Reverence

7/23/11:

As tiny towns go, I liked Williams with its homey restaurants, big slices of pie and kitschy Route 66 memorabilia. But sometimes, I got an itchin’ to get off the ranger district and out of small town Arizona, and on July twenty-third, that itchin’ got real, real bad.

Yelena sympathized and all spur-of-the-moment-like, we found ourselves southward bound and embracing a landscape of prickly saguaros, big blue skies and shrub-dotted buttes.

Our aim was Montezuma’s Castle (a misnomer if there ever was one), a cluster of prehistoric cliff-dwellings inhabited by the Sinagua people in A.D. 700. A twenty room structure carved from white limestone, Montezuma’s Castle was settled seventy feet high on a bluff, its five stories accessible only by a system of ladders. About fifty people had occupied Montezuma’s Castle at once, although marks of a larger dwelling existed nearby. Sadly, early looting of the site has meant a loss of history as few original artifacts remain to be examined. It isn’t known exactly why the Sinagua people abandoned Montezuma’s Castle and the surrounding area in the 1300s, although some posit tensions with the neighboring Yavapai peoples and others point to food shortages caused by drought.

Whatever the case, the Sinagua people left a fairly phenomenal mark on the landscape. Plucked out of rough stone halfway up a sheer cliff face, Montezuma’s Castle is a feat of early architecture and a testament to gutsy building. Waking up in the morning, the Sinagua people must have paid witness to one of the most beautiful views of the valley.

The Verde Valley, at a lower elevation than Williams, was thirst-inducing, sweat-provoking and really rather hot. Snagging a map from one of the monument workers (a woman who had earlier inquired quizzically if I was, indeed, younger than fourteen and therefore eligible for a kid’s pass), Yelena and I set out for the much heralded Beaver Creek. A bit later, and we were soaking our feet in the clear water and watching youngins' drift on by.

Not that our adventures ended there. Back on the highway, Yelena’s interest was piqued by signage for mystical Sedona, a “New Age Mecca” of sorts, and we found ourselves peeling off from the highway. Nestled among looming red rock formations, Sedona’s draw (“Red Rock Fever”) was unmistakable. Old movie classics filmed in Sedona (like 3:10 to Yuma) had given the town the title “Arizona’s Little Hollywood,” although present day crystal shops and spiritual questing were currently popularizing Sedona. Back in the KNF, I had heard more than one jab made about the Red Rock vortexes. Apparently, “many attribute Sedona’s special draw to the ‘vortexes,’ specific points of energetic intensity among the red rocks that affect every living thing. Some look to native theology and folklore for an explanation. There are enough UFO stories around Sedona to give even the most staunch skeptic pause.”

Even after a brief detour into a New Age shop, I couldn’t find myself convinced. The red rock landscape was fantastical, but turning a profit based on hokey “vortexes” seemed like a fairly obvious gimmick. Not that it mattered. One way or another, Sedona and the Red Rocks were magnificent.

Wending out of Sedona, we passed through Oak Creek Canyon on a road made up of hairpin turns and sharp rises in altitude. While Yelena white-knuckled it through some parts, I obnoxiously babbled over the scenery, pressed my nose against the window and attempted to snap photos of just about everything.

I may not have put much stock in the more mystical ideas, but southern Arizona’s beauty—from Montezuma’s Castle to the Red Rocks to Oak Creek Canyon—was like a hard slap to the face: pretty hard to ignore.

From the passenger’s seat I flailed about, sticking my head and arms out of the car window, photographing with reverence.

Photos: 1. Montezuma's Castle 2. Beaver Creek 3. Red Rocks of Sedona 4. Southward bound