Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Montezuma's Well - Rimrock, AZ

I always enjoy a stroll around Montezuma's Well.

"More than 10,000 years ago, the Well’s water fell as rain and snow atop the Mogollon Rim. Over millennia, it has percolated slowly through hundreds of yards of rock, draining drop by drop through the path of least resistance. But here the water encounters an obstacle much harder than the others through which it has flowed. Beneath the Well, a vertical wall of volcanic basalt acts like a dam, forcing water back toward the surface. In its long trip toward daylight, it eroded an underground cavern until its roof collapsed and created the sinkhole you see today. Every day, the Well is replenished with 1.5 million gallons of new water. Like a bowl with a crack in its side, the water overflows through a long, narrow cave in the southeast rim to reappear on the other side at the outlet." - NPS



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