I mentioned it in yesterday’s post about our girls’ trip to Cottonwood, Clarkdale and the Verde Valley, but I recently had a chance to check out Tuzigoot National Monument for the first time.
Tuzigoot is a National Monument, which means its run by the National Park Service.
That means that you can use an “America the Beautiful” interagency admission pass for entrance if you have one.
The sign out front did say admission was $10 a person, but once we got inside, we found that traditional interagency pass rules applied, and the three of us were allowed access on one interagency pass.
We started our visit at the museum.
I always think it’s so helpful to start any kind of a National Park trip at a museum/ visitor center, just to get context for a lot of things you’ll see.
And heritage sites are no exception! I love to learn about local indigenous history before I actually see that history.
“Tuzigoot” is a misinterpreted Tonto Apache term for “crooked water,” which is how the Verde River was referred to.
The Tuzigoot pueblo is a 110-room village that was built 1,000 years ago, and resided in until the 1300s.
The walls remained until about the 1900s, at which point the pueblo began to collapse. Archaeologists began to uncover the site between 1930 and 1935, and many of the artifacts uncovered in the excavation are on display in the site’s museum.
The museum included about 3,000 objects: Everything from shoes and pottery to baskets to projectile points to jewelry.
After we toured the museum, we headed out to the pueblo.
The pueblo is very accessible from the museum. It was just a really quick paved walk up a short hill to get to the pueblo, and then we followed the trail around the site.
You can also climb a set of stairs inside the pueblo to make it up to the top rooms to get a view of the structure and its surroundings (including Tavasci Marsh) from above.
After we checked out the pueblo, we followed the sidewalk to the other side of the visitor to see Tavasci Marsh.
Up until the 1890s, the Verde River was a mile wide at some points.
While the river is much, much narrower now due to a combination of severe flooding and humans generally being awful, there are still some nearby marsh lands, including the Tavasci Marsh.
Tavasci Marsh is the largest freshwater marsh in Arizona that isn’t connected to the Colorado River.
Tuzigoot National Monument actually has a fairly easy 2-mile trail that meanders through the marsh, and the three of us decided to hike it.
It was really cool to spot wildlife and some plants — like cattails! Which I haven’t seen in years.
The trail was a little overgrown in places, but it was so green and lush.
It felt like I was back home hiking in Michigan at some points, which felt really comforting.
We made our way around the loop trail, which led us past the pueblo up on the hill and back to the museum/ visitors center.
Even if you don’t end up completing the Tavasci Marsh hike, it’s still worth it to walk along the marsh overlook. It’s a half-mile trail (a mile round trip) and the entire trail is paved. It was really awesome to read the interpretive guides about the history of the marsh.
Fun fact: Did you know camels and parrots are both native to the area? I learned that on our marsh overlook walk.
And — I definitely recommend a trip to Tuzigoot! It was such a cool site to see.
