Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

We’ve been driving by the exit sign for Montezuma Castle for two years.   We never took the time to stop and explore until this past weekend.   What an interesting place.   Montezuma Castle National Monument is about 50 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona off I-17.   Big exit sign!   We parked and walked up to the visitor center to be greeted by a Desert Grassland Whiptail Lizard.   It seemed he was just waiting to be photographed!   The Greeter - Desert Grassland Whiptail The path from the Visitor Center was fairly short and the cliff we saw was very high.   The castle is a 5 story, 20 room dwelling built into the cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.   The Southern Sinagua farmers began building in the 1100’s Common Era.   It’s funny how places get named.   The early settlers assumed this place was Aztec in origin and named it Montezuma Castle.   We now know that Montezuma never came this far north from his home in Mexico.   Down the path a bit is another building complex

 Mom and 2 eggs  Fat-tailed Geckos have large tails (hence the name) and skinny legs.   They are kind of funny looking and there are very friendly.   They have thin brown velvet like skin with a design and you need to be gentle with them.   Their tails can come off as a defense mechanism and it is where they store their fat.   The tail will be regrown but never as nice as the original.   They eat mealworms and crickets in captivity and insects in nature.   These geckos have eyelids which makes them unique in the gecko world. They grow to be 4-8 inches long and live 15 to 18 years.     We just added a Fat-tailed Gecko nursery to our house!   It really is a 2’x2’ incubator that keeps the humidity and temperature just right for the 4 existing eggs and 2 on the way! Peter had 4 fat-tailed geckos and he kept them separated for several years.   They were easy to care for and feed.   Now that Peter is building new cages for his animals, he decided to see if he could put them to