Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot Ruins

Today we decided to go on a little adventure. We have been discovering the cool things about Arizona lately. Today took us about an hour and a half north of Phoenix. I figured if it is a national monument it has to be pretty cool right? It turned out to be super neat. My kids were not excited to go and leave their DS and other toys at home, but on the way home after they all said they really enjoyed the trip. As usual, I took a gazillion pictures . . . enjoy! Here is a link to some information about the site: Montezuma Castle

Pretty view on the drive up - Sunset Point Rest Area

Kids checking out the view - Sunset Point Rest Area

Sunset Point Rest Area - M still sleeping

My fam with Montezuma Castle in behind them

Montezuma Castle - so amazing!

Walking down the path . . . love these sillies

Mr. Squirrel has made Montezuma Castle ruins his home . . .

Cool lizard we saw

A big creepy black beetle we saw on our walk through - EW!

Me with some of the lower ruins behind me (the ones built close to the base of the mountain)

Can you see the hidden butterfly

We finished checking out the castle ruins at about 4 o'clock, with just an hour left, we quickly hopped in the van and drive the 25 miles over to the Tuzigoot ruins to take a quick peek. As a side note, we drove through the cutest little town on the way to the ruins. I swear it was the model for radiator springs in Cars . . . they had an old gas pump, a surplus store, a hippy dippy store, it was kind of freaky weird and the main street in town was so old and small. The Tuzigoot ruins were neat because the kids could get a lot closer to them. The building inside was kind of icky as you went up the stairs to the top of the ruins because it smelled like animal pee, but other than that, really cool!