Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
The time of year I normally travel through this area (winter) has always made it difficult to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The monument is well outside of cellular coverage and way up above 5000 ft elevation, so I have skipped past it for eight years now. Kerri had not ever been either, so with it so close (within the same state) and a local offering some reassurance that weather up there was OK at this time of the year (now March) we made a break for it on our final weekend day (officially my 113th national park).
Waking up early (for Kerri) from our overnight boondocking spot, we got back on the road to finish off the final hour of driving to get to the National Park. By the map, the cliff dwellings do not seem that far from Silver City – and it is not if just counting the miles – but the twisting mountain road kept Big Blue at a very low speed. He is not as agile as he use to be, and even back then it was on the scale of a submarine. Eventually, we found ourselves pulling into the visitors center to pickup my obligatory lapel pin and take a peak at the displays inside.
The dwellings themselves were a short drive down the road, where we put on our hiking shoes for the first time in so long I do not want to admit it, and set off for a tour of the dwellings proper. I was surprised to see that the NPS still allowed people inside the dwellings (pretty limited I will admit) as I swore I read that the idiocy of some visitors finally forced the NPS to disallow that. However, the trail still ran through the caves themselves, although there was a volunteer standing nearby at all times.
In all honestly, if you have seen one cliff dwelling, you have seen them all. There was nothing hugely special about these over Mesa Verde… or Walnut Canyon, but I couldn’t help myself but to day dream of living here way back when. The small canyon down below held a stream within easy enough reach (for the kids). The openings of the caves all faced south, so the morning warmth was abundant. The surrounding mountains and meadows were top notch as well. Yea, the place just did it for me.
I wondered about the dwellings at the Navajo National Monument… the builders were only there for 70 years or so.
All that work then head out…
I’ve only ever passed through the Navajo Nation, missing the monument there as well. One day I will pop in.
The free Canyon View campground has, as the name suggests, a nice view of the canyon. Also, the sites aren’t large enough for big RVs, so that’s an advantage for those of us who travel small. The trail from the visitor center down into the canyon is really nice, particularly early in the morning.
Gila was my first cliff dwelling visit. I kept thinking, “Man, that’s a lot of rock, water and mud to haul up here.”
That is what the kids are for :)
The ones that I’ve actually been allowed into, the one thing that I focused on was the hand and finger prints left in the mud. That adds a very human element to the visit. And a very memorable one.