Montezuma Well

 

Visited: Nov 2021

Nearby town: Camp Verde, AZ

In central Arizona, you will find a natural limestone sinkhole known as Montezuma Well. About 1.5 million gallons of water emerge everyday from this underground spring.

The Well's steady outflow has supported irrigation in this area since 700 AD. Today, the Well is preserved by the NPS as a separate unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument.

Here's our blogpost when we visited the Castle: 

https://paulnationalparks.blogspot.com/2019/06/montezuma-castle-national-monument.html

The Castle is only about 11 miles away from the Well, so if in the area, be sure to visit both. It's an interesting and unique roadside stop. There is a small parking lot and then it's a pleasant 0.7-mile loop hike to see the well, some cliff dwellings, and beautiful high-desert scenery.

The well is 368 ft across and approximately 55 ft deep. It contains a near-constant volume of spring water, even in times of severe drought.

The water in the Well has a high concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide gas (about 80 times higher concentration of CO2 than typical freshwater), so there are no fish in these waters. However, the Well supports other forms of aquatic life: including endemic species of diatoms, springsnails, water scoprion, amphipod, and leeches. 

cliff dwelling high above the water of the well (you can see the water in the extreme lower right of this photo).

Like the nearby Castle, the label of "Montezuma" is a misnomer. The ruins here have nothing to do with Emperor Montezuma or the Aztec Peoples. When Spanish Conquistadors visited this area in the 1500s, they wrongly assumed that the mighty Aztec were responsible for the ruins they found here. These dwellings were actually home to the Sinagua peoples, who lived in these parts as early as 500 AD. The Sinagua built canals and used this springwater to irrigate and grow crops. The Sinagua abandoned this area around 1300-1400 AD. It is unknown why they left. Today, local tribes believe these waters served as the origin of all life, and consider the Well sacred. The first Anglo-American to settle at the Well was Wales Arnold in 1870. Wales and his wife operated a mail station here and used the prehistoric Sinagua irrigation canal to water their land. The land was later sold by subsequent owners to the federal government, and the Well became a part of the NPS in 1947. 

take the short spur-trail to the surface of the Well. 

you can see the cliff dwellings across the Well

the ruins of this pueblo date from 1050 AD

the pre-historic canal

the canal (right) and Wet Beaver Creek (left). The creek eventually flows into the Verde River.

beautiful fall foliage of Arizona

I lived in Arizona for many years, and never took the time to get off the freeway to explore Montezuma Well. I've been missing out! We had a great time at the Well.

More info here: https://www.nps.gov/moca/planyourvisit/exploring-montezuma-well.htm