Verde Valley: Sinagua Cliff Dwellings, Apache Wars & Arizona Wine

The best-preserved cliff dwelling in North America — a 5-story, 20-room structure built by Sinagua people between the 11th and 15th centuries into a natural alcove 90 feet up a vertical limestone cliff face above Beaver Creek. The name is a misnomer (Aztec emperor Montezuma had no connection to it; early Anglo settlers assumed any impressive pre-Columbian structure must be Aztec). The Sinagua farmed the Beaver Creek bottomland and traded turquoise and salt across a wide network before abandoning the Verde Valley around 1425. Montezuma Well, 11 miles away, is an equally worthwhile companion stop — a limestone sinkhole fed by 1.5 million gallons of underground spring water daily, with additional cliff dwellings in the alcoves around its rim.

A 110-room Sinagua hilltop pueblo on a limestone ridge overlooking the Verde River floodplain — occupied from around 1125 to 1400 CE. Tuzigoot ('crooked water' in Apache) grew from a small settlement to a 92-room multi-story structure as the Sinagua population expanded and trade connections deepened. The excavation in 1933-34 by University of Arizona archaeologists found 429 burials and a wide range of trade goods including shells from the Gulf of California. The ridge summit gives panoramic views of the Verde Valley, Clarkdale, and Jerome on the opposite hillside.

Jerome's steep main street with galleries, studios, wine bars, and restaurants occupying the former mine-era commercial buildings. Jerome was Arizona's third-largest city in 1900 (population 15,000) during the copper boom; by 1953 it was officially declared a ghost town (population 50); by the 1970s the artist community had claimed the empty buildings. The Sliding Jail — which literally moved 225 feet downhill due to mine blast damage — is visible off the main street, still sitting at its new angle.

The 1927 hospital that served the Jerome mining community — built at the highest point of Jerome with panoramic views across the Verde Valley and the red rock country toward Sedona. The building sat empty for decades and was restored as a hotel in 1996. The dining room has the best view in Jerome; the top floors look out over 100 miles of Arizona high desert and mountain landscape at sunset.

The 1916 adobe mansion built by mining magnate James 'Rawhide Jimmy' Douglas overlooking his Little Daisy copper mine — designed for comfortable living while maintaining a direct sightline to his mine operations below. The museum inside traces Jerome's arc: Spanish exploration for silver (no significant find), the 1876 discovery of copper deposits, the United Verde Copper Company's emergence as one of the richest copper mines in the world, the labor conflicts, the 1925 fire that burned much of the town, and the final closure in 1953.

The best-preserved military post from the Apache Wars era — established 1871 as a base for General George Crook's campaign against Yavapai and Apache bands in the Tonto Basin. Four original adobe buildings remain: officers' quarters, the surgeon's quarters, the bachelor officers' quarters, and the administration building. The fort is where Crook organized the 1872-73 Tonto Basin Campaign that effectively ended armed Apache resistance in the Verde Valley; Crook's controversial peace agreements, which the army later violated, are interpreted fairly here. The museum covers the perspective of both the soldiers and the Yavapai people displaced by the post.

The largest known petroglyph site in the Verde Valley — 1,032 individual Sinagua rock art images pecked into a 60-foot basalt cliff face above Wet Beaver Creek between 900 and 1300 CE. The images include spirals, human figures, deer, mountain lions, snakes, and abstract symbols; a distinctive group of figures holding hands may represent a ceremonial or social scene. The site is managed by the Coconino National Forest and the Yavapai Nation; a volunteer docent is present during open hours (Friday–Monday, 9:30am–3:30pm).

A boutique hotel on Main Street in Old Town Cottonwood — the center of the Verde Valley wine corridor. Old Town's renovated 1930s and 1940s commercial buildings now house wine tasting rooms from Alcantara, Pillsbury Wine, and other Verde Valley producers; the same buildings had earlier been a trading post, saloons, and a bordello. Sedona is 30 minutes south for tomorrow morning.

The 1956 Roman Catholic chapel cantilevered into the red sandstone cliffs south of Sedona — commissioned by sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude with design input from Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin studio. The chapel faces the canyon, with the surrounding buttes rising 1,500 feet in all directions. The 90-foot cross is integrated into the building's structure rather than mounted on top; the interior is deliberately minimal to let the red rock landscape read through the glass walls.

The heritage museum in Uptown Sedona covers what was here before the vortex tours and crystal shops — the homesteading era of the 1880s when the Jordan and Miller families farmed Oak Creek and built the first Anglo structures in the red rock country. A significant section covers Sedona's Hollywood history: over 80 western films were shot here between 1923 and the early 1970s, including Stagecoach (1939), Johnny Guitar (1954), and several John Ford westerns; the red rock formations were cast as Monument Valley's backdrop when Wayne and Ford weren't shooting in Utah.

A Mexican colonial-style arts complex with 45 independently owned galleries and studios — a better final browse than the main Uptown strip. The courtyard restaurants are shaded by giant sycamores; the chapel courtyard fountain is the center of the complex. The return drive to Phoenix on I-17 takes about 2 hours.