Boondocking and Sightseeing in Cottonwood Arizona

How did they construct this almost 1,000 years ago?

As the temperatures in southern Arizona start climbing into the upper 80’s and low 90’s snowbirders head north in droves. This week we joined the migration to cooler climates. Vowing to slow down and enjoy this journey we reviewed our route to take full advantage of the sights along the way.

As we left Tucson the temperature was 84, by the time we passed through Phoenix it topped out at 94. Not good as we were planning on boondocking off of Bloody Basin Road (34.296318, -112.138756)  south of Camp Verde. One thing I really don’t like is boondocking in heat to the point you cannot sleep at night. Luckily as we climbed the mountains north of Phoenix on I-17 the temps started dropping into the lower 80’s with a nice breeze.

Now one might think boondocking someplace called Bloody Basin would not be a great idea but it was not too bad. Maybe a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Mainly because there was only one spot where we fit and even that was a little rough. That and all the trash people leave in these areas. Why can’t people clean up after themselves?!?!? If not for the trash we would have given it an 8.

The next day we drove a short 45 minutes to the town of Cottonwood where we camped on some free 14 day BLM area on Thousand Trails Road (34.668865 -111.96154). There are several camping areas on the road that are clean and big rig friendly. If you are in the area we would recommend this spot over the Bloody Basin Road area.

The main reason we stopped in this area was to see some of the ancient ruins. We were fascinated by some of these ruins after seeing them in other peoples blogs. When we saw that there were several on our way north we made plans to stop and see several. The first three we stopped and saw were  Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Wells.

All three were interesting, some of  these ruins were inhabited dating back to as early as 700AD.  Of the three Montezuma's Castle National Monument was the most impressive. With an entrance fee of $10/person you can walk the short loop near the ruins.

Occupying a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley floor this 20 room 5 story structure was believed to have been built between 1100 and 1300AD. It is fascinating to look at these structures and think that they were constructed almost 1,000 years ago with very primitive tools.

Montezuma Well National Monument (free) is a sink that was formed when the roof of an underground water cavern collapsed creating the lake. Early inhabitants (1050) created irrigation ditches to water their crops.

The well with the ruins in the upper left corner

Another ruin near where the water flows out of the well

The Arizona Sycamore trees here are huge!

Tuzigoot National Monument ($10/person) has 87 ground floor room site along the Verde River built between 1000 – 1400AD. Absolutely incredible!

With the afternoon temperatures reaching into the mid 80’s we walked each of these ruins before noon each day so we weren’t leaving the dogs unattended in the rig during the afternoon heat. One afternoon we took them to Black Canyon Day Use Area. This was our first time we have had Dakota in the water. We were told that she loved water but up to this point we have not let her in as we did not want to deal with a wet dog in the rig. Since it was so warm and she would dry quickly we let her loose and she went absolutely crazy!!!! She ran and jumped into the river like she was one of those dock jumping dogs you see on TV. From that point she swam continuously for almost an hour. Swimming, getting out running around and running back in. She was like a little kid.

We threw the dummy a few times and both Dakota and Daisy would race to it to see who could get to it first. Dakota won most of the time. On one occasion Dakota swam right over Daisy and it took what seemed like several seconds for Daisy to surface again. In actuality it was probably one a second but she popped up like a bobber and continued on after the dummy.

Speaking of Dakota, we had an interesting incident when all four of us woke up the other day. Barb and I woke up to the sound of urumff, urumff, urumff.......When we figured out what it was we all jumped up (Daisy included) just as Dakota started throwing up near Barb's pillow! Luckily she sleeps on a large towel and I was able to scoop up the towel before anything soaked through. Talk about a rude awakening! 

Of course to trip to a large town is complete without checking out the local brewery! That Brewery located in old Cottonwood is very small and quaint. They don't serve any food but had a nice variety of brews. None of them made the top of our favorite brews but it was nice to quench our thirst.

Our goal for this area complete we are headed down the road to check out another place we have had on our list for a couple years. As the song says it should be "such a fine sight to see...."