We revisited the Homolovi State Park recently, and once again we could not have been more pleased with the campground. Our favorite campsite is 22. It provides an excellent view towards the City of Winslow. The railroad cars seem to run almost no stop and you can catch a train whistle off in the distance if the conditions are just right.
HOMOLOVI STATE PARK SPACE 22 2012 Top, 2016 Bottom
It seems as if many travelers use the Homolovi campground as a stop over place, as many RV’s arrive in the late afternoon and leave early the next morning. There were a few other sites which held occupants who stayed several days.
Homoloi State Park has been established to protect 4 ancient Native American communities Homolovi I, II, III, IV. Homolovi II is the main attraction and is open year round. Here are some photos from our 2012 visit, as we did not revisit Homolovi II this time around. The majority of the photos are of the huge amount of pottery shards that can be found everyone around the partially excavated ruin.
Homolovi I is also open year round, but is not excavated. It does however also have large amounts of pottery shards around the site. Here is an exposed wall from the site. I do not know if this was excavated, refilled, and then this has become exposed, or if it was intentionally left exposed, but it is really the only exposed wall at the site. Beautifully located right next to the Little Colorado River.
Homolovi III – was at one time excavated, but it is now under the Little Colorado River. Homolovi IV is an impressive structure (so I am told by the Park Rangers), but due to budgetary constraints is only open for guided tours in the fall. I intend to go back this fall if my schedule permits to visit Homolovi IV.
Within the boundaries of the Park was once the Mormon settlement of Sunset. There is a small cemetery accessible via a trail from the visitor center parking lot. Photos are unavailable of this site as the camera would have been pointed directly at the sun, will try to get photos of this on our next visit.
From our base camp here at Homolovi State Park we visited two National Monuments, Tuzigoot, and Montezuma’s Castle/Well.
Tuzigoot is an impressive place it a lovely area of Arizona. Sitting up on a hill, the people who established this community had a beautiful view of the area. Although I am sure they selected the site for purposes of practicality, I am sure they benefited by the beauty that surrounded their home.
This was Bandit’s first visit to a National Monument and a trail where he would potentially encounter a large number of people. Bandit who was dumped near our home at about 4 months old, was possible abused, as he seems to have extreme fear of people. He is getting much, much better, and let me tell you, once he does meet you, he LOVES you. Anyway, he did pretty good, but, it was kind of stressful for all of us on this first attempt.
At Montezuma’s Castle the crowd was just too large for us to feel comfortable taking Bandit on the short walk to see the Castle, So Jim sat in the lovely picnic area with Bandit as I visited the Monument. Quite an impressive structure, and to think that people actually lived up there, hanging off the side of the mountain, well it is kind of amazing. At one time visitors were allowed into the structure, but that had to be stopped due to the damage it was causing to the Castle.
Down the road just a few miles is the Montezuma’s Well section of this Monument. Here, a bit less crowded, we decided to test Bandit out once again. He did marvelously this time, and there was actually quite a few people, but we had a much better feeling about this place which I think helped our stress level and we didn’t transfer that to him. This section was almost more impressive that seeing the Castle, as the trail was longer and more challenging than the short paved walk at the Castle. This well really is an oasis in the desert pumping up thousands of gallons of water a day from a natural spring.
Along the way I was able to get a County Courthouse Photo, two Post Office photos, and several National Register of Historic Places.
But at the end of the day – This is what it is all about.
Till next time……