The campground in Silver City that we stayed in was a Passport America and had snowbirds snuggled in for the season and plenty of additional sites for those RVers passing through. I liked the sided privacy/wind blocking fences at each site.
Karen was fighting a cold so she remained in her rig taking good drugs while Nikki and I headed off through the Gila National Forest to find the site of the Gila Cliff Dwellers. The 44 mile drive through the mountains was as neat as the Cliffs. Forests and mountains in New Mexico.....everything is not desert. On the drive back out, I noticed some snow still melting along one of the ditches along the shaded curvy road. Here are the woods.
And here are some of the mountains....
When we arrived at the Visitor's Center near the Gila Cliff Dwellings.....Nikki spotted him, the cowboy, on our way up the steps. (His wife then came out of the restrooms... :=) but she had a great sense of humor, too!)
Nikki waited down below and investigated the small museum while I headed up to see the caves.
Nice walking trail in the section down below.
But something is bound to change if I have to make it all the way up there....
Getting closer.
Are you kidding? The trail was the only part of the mountain that had stone steps built into the steep climb.
My daughter always tells me that I just need to practice climbing steep trails more often....huff, puff, huff. Luckily the National Park Service has several "old ladies can rest here" benches at the end of several of the switchbacks.
Almost there.
So I got to the top in time to join the 1:00 pm guided tour. After listening to the initial history, what little they actually know about the inhabitants of the cliffs I moved on past and toured most of the areas by myself. The cowboy (and his wife) were left behind.....
These ruins are some of the few that allow you to climb inside some of the rooms and actually look around.
A peak into this room looks like it may have been a meeting area. The ranger said that they had consulted with other First Nation members trying to get a better idea of what and how these dwellings may have been used. He said that they had learned many things but were also asked not to discuss some issues such as religion beliefs, religious ceremonies, burials, human remains that may have been found....out of respect for the people that had lived there.
The view from their front porch is striking. I would not have wanted to be the one to fetch the water up from the spring feed creek below. Then again in these dry lands of the Southwest, it made good sense that these people might have picked this site back in the 1270's......
Wonder whose job it was to watch the young children?
The walk down was a piece of cake....because, well it was down hill, after all. The ranger had mentioned that there had been a fire in 2011 that affected park of the park. Can you see how black and burned the lower part of the trees ares and how green the tops still are?
The ride back was as beautiful and the ride out but we both were glad to be making it in a car and not in an RV. We drove on to Deming the next day. Karen chose to stay in an RV park in town and Nikki and I headed to one farther out of town to see more stars and hear more silence.....
More on that later. Time for puppers to take a walk and get to bed....
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