Gila Cliff dwellings National Monument

We visited Gila Cliff National Monument on April 8th amid the coronavirus virus pandemic. This is the second National Park/Monument we’ve visited during the coronavirus pandemic, the first being Mesa Verde NP. 

We have been spending most of our time in the trailer during the stay-in-place order here in New Mexico unless we are grocery shopping or sightseeing in the truck. It's becoming difficult to stay in a place for very long being full-timers so we look for places to see in a day, day-tripping.  Gila cliff dwellings seemed particularly interesting because we have just visited Mesa Verde, and it was spectacular.  So, off we went to Silver city; little did we know the google map getting us to Silver city was not really getting us to the park.  That trip, we found out from a sign just inside the Gila forest, would be 2 additional hours!  See how confusing these signs can be >>> 









So, we were already 'behind' when we got there. The two hours was definitely worth the time.  We drove through many pullouts with spectacular views of breathtaking, green forest slopes and valleys with snow-capped mountains in the distance.

But, with the park closing at 4:30ish we still had a great hike and a nice surprise.  

On the trail up to the cliff dwellings, we met only one other person. There were several cars in the parking lot and one guy with a parked rig moochdocking in the parking lot.  From our perspective, we've not seen many people out and about in National Parks and Monuments. However, here is a National Geographic article on the current situation with people trespassing and vandalizing our National Parks. Apparently, there has been an uptick in visitation in some National Parks and it has not been a good thing for those parks. 

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Gila Cliff dwellings is a 533-acre National Monument with a 1-mile loop trail to the cliff dwelling caves. The trail itself is currently partially shut down due to flooding on the Gila Creek tributary right below the cliff dwellings. 

These Cliff dwellings differ from those at Mesa Verde in that you have direct access via an easy trail to see them and to hike directly into them. That in itself made this whole trip worthwhile. 

The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde were much larger and more city-like, however, we were not really able to get up close to them, since the tours are not scheduled until April and we were there in February.  And I believe even on a tour they would not have let us get into the physical structures and rooms.  Here at Gila, we were able to actually go into the caves and dwellings on our own!  We explored two of the larger, connected caves carefully walking through the home dwellings built by the Mogollon Indians. What a nice surprise to be able to experience that!    

Here's a photo from the NPS website's historical photos of Gila.  From the park's guide: "After an 1878 prospecting trip, H.B. Ailman documented the cliff dwellings.  Archeologist Adolph Bandelier arrived in 1884, but looters had already stolen many artifacts and destroyed much of the archeological record.  Settlement of the region by miners and ranchers accelerated after the Apache Wars ended in 1886.  Homesteaders emigrated to the area to raise herds of cattle and sheep.  In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument to prevent further damage and vandalism to the cliff dwellings.  As wild lands across the United States began to vanish, a wilderness preservation movement arose.  In 1924 Aldo Leopold, a pioneering ecologist working as assistant district forester for the Southwest national forests, persuaded the National Forest Service to establish the Gila Wildnerness, the nation's first Wilderness Area.  Leopold's vision helped inspire the 1964 wilderness act which preserves the wildness of over 109 million acres of federal public lands. "

Hiking up to the caves. 

looking through the caves

Here is my album with our photos.