17-GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS

We are now on our way to Silver City, New Mexico. To get there we drive past White Sands National Monument. We visited this location a few years ago so did not stop on this trip.

Purple mountains provide the background to snow-white sand.

In fact they will rent sleds so you can slide down the sand dunes like you would on a snowy hill.

The motorhome is now parked in Silver City. From here we will explore areas around this part of the state.


Our RV space is backed up to the local cemetery. I read that Billy the Kid’s mother is buried there. We tried to find her plot but couldn’t find the grave of any lady who had the last name of “Kid.” Can’t imagine why.

Our plan is to visit the Gila (Hee-la) Cliff Dwellings. They are only about 40 or so miles away, but the sign on the road stresses that it is a 2-1/2 hour drive. Seems strange till you get on the narrow highway that is full of endless S-turns. Although it is a slow drive, it is also a very beautiful drive.

At one point there is an overlook where you can see copper-colored cliffs down in a very deep canyon.

Later, the terrain became much dryer and there are interesting cliffs carved by wind and water along the Gila River Canyon.

Finally we arrive at the Visitor’s Center, which is actually only a gift shop with a small museum and a video about the area. The videos are always a good thing to watch because they give you information you wouldn’t have any other way. The cliff dwellings are a couple miles further down the road.

One of the things we learned is that Geronimo was born near the headwaters of the Gila River in early 1820.

Now we finally arrive at the start of the trail to the cliff dwellings. They warned us that the trail included about 154 steps and that there is a section of about 185 feet that is quite steep. Oh, Boy!! Here we go again.

Once again I have my faithful Hurry Cane and up we go.

We started out over this innocent looking bridge. Of course it’s a trap. Things get dicey after crossing this bridge…

…actually we crossed about six of these bridges as we zig-zag back and forth across the creek that runs through the canyon, all going uphill. So far it is a pretty hike but the altitude is getting to us.

Have I mentioned the STEPS?? ONE HUNDRED FIFTY FOUR of them? And that they are not built to code???  In other words, there are major tripping hazards and they go on and on. (Huff! Puff!!)

Finally we are able to see the caves and the dwellings from the trail.

Closer up, these dwelling are quite impressive. It took us about a half hour to hike up to them. (And I stress the word UP!!) There was a (young!) girl park ranger up in the caves to answer questions for us. (She said she can hike up in 10 minutes. I personally found that really disgusting!!)

The wooden poles that extend from the dwellings are original. These homes were built in the 1200’s. About 80% of these dwellings are original. Only the things that needed stabilizing have been strengthened.

The roof in the caves are burned black indicating that fires were burned inside. They think that there were only about 40-60 individuals who inhabited these dwellings and for only one generation. What an amazing amount of work these people did for such a short period of time.

From inside the caves there was a nice view of the canyon below. The caves faced in a southerly direction so that the sun’s angle allowed the sunlight to enter the cave to warm it in the winter and keep it cool in the summer.

These steps were added so we could get from one cave to another. (There were seven caves altogether. The seventh had never been occupied. We entered five of them.)

This is a narrow walkway with no railings next to a straight-down edge of the canyon. This is why I have my cane. If you know me really well, you know that I am klutzy. In other words, if the Olympics had an event in Klutzyness, I WOULD BRING HOME THE GOLD!!! Thank you Hurry Cane!

The last cave we entered contained two or three pictographs. These are painted on the walls, as opposed to the petroglyphs that we saw a few days ago that are carved into the patina of the rocks.

In order to get down out of the caves and back on the trail, we had to climb down this ladder just as the natives did way back then.

My thanks go to Dr. Moore for a pair of bright shiny new knees that could have never done this a year and a half ago.

OK, but does this ladder make my butt look fat???

We finished the hike all the way back down to the parking lot and went down the road to have a picnic lunch. 

At that location is a rock cliff face with a few more pictographs on the rocks. Because pictographs are painted on the rocks they may not last as long as petroglyphs that are carved into the rocks. Many are very faded, however, they have been here a very long time.

On our return to Silver City, we stopped by the Western New Mexico University Museum. (Pictures are again off the web.)

It has the largest and most complete collection of Mimbres pottery in existence. It was an amazing collection of this ancient pottery.

Now it gets complicated. Archeologist call this the Mogollon (moggy-yon) area. It’s pottery style is referred to as Mimbres. There’s probably a lot more to it than that, but I will leave you with this brief explanation.

Before we left the Museum, we both made the cursory visit to the restrooms. I was waiting outside for Don when he  motioned me to come into the men’s room. “Oh, my gosh! Is he sick?” Oh, no. He had something to show me.

Now (thankfully) I have not been privileged to view very many men’s urinals. He assured me he had seen many but none that appeared to be 100 years old like these were.

He was right. Be thankful. I did not take a picture. I'll leave that to your imagination.

Our next adventure will be to visit some ghost towns in the area. This will be a different view of history.