Travel Diary: 2023 Tour through New Mexico - Part 7
The view from the trail as you walk upon the dwellings for the first time.
After our our delicious brekkie on Friday morning at Bear Mountain Lodge, we made the gorgeous drive from Silver City to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Although it’s only a 44-mile drive, it takes about 2 hours to get to the dwellings due to the twists & turns of the road. There are also a number of places to pull off and take in the scenery of Gila National Forest. We encountered many deer during our drive, so please be aware when making the drive up to the dwellings. We also saw a lot of prime camping spots along the way to the ruins, something we made note of for a future visit with our Vanagon.
We had initially planned to visit Chaco Culture National Historical Park earlier in our trip, but it was mostly closed due to construction. The Gila Cliff Dwellings made for a great alternate choice. The open-air dwellings were built in the 1200s in natural caves. The Monument allows you to tour these dwellings and get a glimpse of what life was like for the Mogollon people.
There's a short hike to to ruins (1.0 mile loop) from the museum/visitor center. The ruins were originally constructed by the Mogollon people around 1280. They utilized the natural "caves" in the cliff to interlink a number of alcoves high above the gorge. All the wooden beams you see in the caves are the original ones! The dwellings were inhabited for a few decades before they we're abandoned. It has never been found why the people left. Judging by the difficulty to access the dwellings, we think it just wasn't a practical choice for a home.
It’s so much fun to explore the ancient alcoves!
There's no entrance fee for the park, which was a surprise. We found this rather odd considering how educational and interesting the site is. We always find a way to make a small monetary donation to parks like these. Every little bit helps.
Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is very far-removed from anything else in New Mexico. However, if you're interested in history and learning about the indigenous peoples of America, we highly recommend taking the time to visit.
Since it was coming to the end of the week, it was time to head east toward home. That doesn’t mean our adventuring was over, however. There’s still a lot to see between here & there. Our next stop would be White Sands National Park!
We had already been to the park twice before, but we just can’t drive by without stopping. It’s such a special place! When we visit White Sands, we like to trudge well beyond all the footsteps of previous visitors to get a glance at the beauty of the untouched dunes. You can get quite a workout here climbing up & down the white gypsum!
It takes a bit of walking, but you can escape the crowds to admire the untouched dunes.
Did you know you can sled down the dunes? You can bring your own sled or buy one at the visitor center. We usually buy one and gift it to someone in the visitor center when we’re finished. Lugging a sled 1400 miles home in our vehicle isn’t something we wanna do. Plus, you can make someone’s day by giving them a sled! Sledding the dunes is super-fun, but honestly, climbing back up after sledding down a few times gets old & tiring pretty quick. Plus, it was 102F in the park on that particular day. Not a day we wanna be over-exerting ourselves!
If sledding isn't your thing, there are a few trails in the park that give you a chance to explore and escape the crowd. One of these trails leads to a handful backcountry campsites, which were closed during our visit. We hiked back to check 'em out anyway. The good thing about the campsites is they are scattered about so you're not camping right on top of other campers. We hope to camp there one day to take in the sunrise & sunset.
After our afternoon of frolicking through the dunes, we decided to find camp. Just a few minutes down Highway 70 from White Sands toward Las Cruces is the entrance road to Aguirre Spring Campground. This primitive camp is located right on the eastern side of the Organ Mountains. We arrived late in the afternoon to the first-come,first-served campground, but somehow ended up with the best site in the whole place! We were beyond stoked to be nestled up against these beautiful rocky spires for the night for the low, low price of $5!
We witnessed yet another beautiful sunrise at the base of the Organ Mountains.
We had a hike planned for Saturday morning that supposedly leads to an old hiding spot of the great Apache leader Geronimo. More on that in the next blog entry.
-Andrew