Montezuma Castle

Thursday morning we visited Montezuma Castle National Monument. The "castle" is a 5 story pueblo structure built in the 12th and 13th century by a tribe of native Americans called the Sinagua, but abandoned by the 15th century. It was named by Spanish explorers who named it after the famous Aztec king, even though he had no connection to it.

The site had a small visitor center with some displays about the Sinagua and how they built the structure. It took the kids about a half an hour to complete the Jr Ranger program by looking at the exhibits, and then we walked out to view the ruins, which took about 15 minutes. From there we continued south to Phoenix, then turned west and drove to Palm Springs to meet some friends for dinner. We stayed the night there.

After breakfast in Palm Springs, we finished our journey westward by driving to the Disneyland Resort, where we checked into the Grand Californian Hotel. We took the monorail into Disneyland, rode a couple of rides (mostly in Tomorrowland), and worked on VMK quests.

We also watched the parade. We headed back to the room fairly early, so we could get up the next morning for early entry.