Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument | New Mexico

This National Monument is reached by a narrow winding road from Silver City that sometimes feels like a one-lane road, since there is no center line.  There is another road that can be used, just a few miles west. When I arrived, I got an overview of the trail from a volunteer and then set out on my hike.

This is my first glimpse of the dwellings from the trail.

Then I got inside the caves.  The dwellings were built inside natural caves and alcoves, which made construction easier.  There were multiple areas where people lived back in the 1200s.  The Mogollon people left in the early 1300s.  It seem that most of these cliff dwellers in other areas moved on about that time also. 

This is the view of the area from inside.  The dwellings are almost 200 feet above the valley floor.

This is the view from the trail below the cliff dwellings.



Balcony House - Mesa Verde National Park



I have heard of Mesa Verde from everyone - a must see, do-not-miss type of warning. And they were right - it's an amazing National Park. It has been on my list since before I set out.

When I got to the Durango area, I found the campground where two of my fellow solo female RVer were staying. We have been meeting up off and on when our paths cross. It just so happened that the day I got there was their last day at that camp.  When I arrived that morning, they invited me to go to Mesa Verde for the day. Sure - sounded good to me!

 

The park covers a large territory and the roads wind up and down the mountainsides. We had time to do only one tour - Balcony House. At the appointed time, there were about 20 or so people gathered for the tour. After a short briefing, we started down into the canyon by a series of steel stairways. The trail was only a quarter of a mile long, but during that time, we climbed a 32' double ladder to the first rooms. This photo of the ladder was taken after everyone had safely arrived at the top.

The next area was visible through a window between the two living areas.

 

After a briefing about the first area and the construction, the next area was accessed by a skinny tunnel......

The next area contained two kivas, areas that had multiple purposes in the puebloan peoples' lives - ceremonies and socializing. Kivas are always round and sunken. When they were in use, they had ceilings.

During their construction of all these cliff dwellings, they used the existing rock formations and caves as part of their construction, as seen below.

This was the final area of this little neighborhood and we had to exit through a tunnel. This tunnel was so small, we all had to crawl through it, only a few feet until we could stand and then another crawl area for a few feet.

After that, the fun continues, there were steep steps carved into a rock heading up the hill. These had been carved over 800 years ago. They are so steep that, to prevent mishaps, the park has installed heavy chain railings and a safety net on the downhill side.

After a couple of short ladders, the tour was over. Such a great place, such an experience to see how these people lived more than 800 years ago. For some reason, they moved out in 1200 - no one seems to know why.

 

I will be back to do more of their tours of the cliff dwellings and to further explore the park. There is much more to see here.

 

 

 

Hovenweep National Monument

The name Hovenweep is a Ute Indian word meaning "deserted valley", which it now is. This area of puebloan ruins is way out in the middle of nowhere, miles from anything but farmland. The trip was through rollling fields of crops growing and other crops being harvested, not to mention some really rough cattle guards - rough enough to require warning signs.

During the 2 mile hike to see the ruins, I went down into the canyon to the other side and around the rim where I could view numerous buildings that had made up the village.

The ruins of this area are mostly built around the rim of a canyon, with some inside the canyon. For some reason, these people built towers, both square and round, with multiple stories. These towers have multiple little square openings, smaller than windows, as if they were lookouts for invaders. It is not really known what these openings were used for, but they do look over a large empty stretch of land on each side.

 

The square tower is about two stories and was constructed down in the canyon.  It has the same small holes, but if they were used for lookouts for enemies, they wouldn't see much inside the canyon.

 

Other structures include larger openings, obviously windows and doors.

The twin towers have one flat wall, the rest of the structures are round shaped. There were 16 rooms in the two towers and they are known to be the most carefully constructed structures in the area that includes many pueblos.

 

It is amazing how many of these areas are still standing and I'm sure that some ruins that were on the neighboring farmland have been cleared away during the centuries after the puebloan people left.

 

Mesa Verde - Long House

 

Doesn't look like a good day for a hike. About 25 people waited for the Park Ranger to start his briefing on the tour on which he was going to take us. He said he didn't know what the weather was going to do, but if it rained, we would continue on the hike to the ruins. OK, my major concern was my camera, but then I noticed a machine that dispensed doggy poop bags so people can pick up after their pets. They just happened to be camera size.

 

We walked down a path that zigzagged down the side of the canyon. I could tell it would not be a fun trip back up at this elevation.

We climbed some ladders to get to the back of the alcove that housed the ruins. Toward the back, we found a moist, mossy green area which was water seeping into the ruins. This is where the residents got water while they were living there.

The park ranger was full of statistics and we were told that the residents lived there until almost 1300. They ranged in height from 5'2" to 5'5" and the men lived about 35 years. Women weren't so lucky, they lived until about 22 and had an average of about 8 babies - not all of them lived. They worked hard, building homes, farming, making pottery and clothing. They accessed their homes by carving toe and hand holds in the cliff walls to get up to the mesa. Everything brought back to their homes was carried on their backs down the face of the cliff.

 

 

 

  

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

 

Today I took a tour to see Cliff Palace, puebloan ruins that were built in an alcove sheltered by a large cliff in a canyon.

These were built around 1200 using local sandstone, a mix of mud and water between the blocks and local wood.

Evidence shows that they traded with neighbors and people from other villages. Seashells from the Pacific has been found here, as well as items from what is now New Mexico and other places.

These residents farmed corn, squash and beans, as well as hunting deer and small mammals.

The exit from this little community was fun - steps carved in a rock canyon, with 3 ladders to make it to the top, all shown in the photos below.
 

 

 

Tuzigoot - Clarksdale, Arizona

 

This National Monument is the excavated ruins of the homes of the Sinagua Indians built somewhere between 1000 and 1400.  The name is Apache for "crooked water" and is pronounced Too-zee-goot.  These people also inhabited Montezuma Well and Montezuma Castle in this area, I did a blog earlier this month on those two areas.

 

Logs were used for support posts of the rooms, as shown in this photo, just one area that had been refurbished to show the construction methods.   Smaller logs were then used for the ceiling and then covered with grasses, branches or other woven material.   Mud was finally placed on top to seal it.

 

This area was built on a hill, with rooms averaging 200 square feet per family.  There were few exterior doors, similar to other pueblos.  Most of the entrances were accessed through the roof reached by ladders.  If there was any danger, they could just pull up the ladders.

This photo shows one of the rooms.  The dark stone in the middle was used for food preparation.   A smaller stone would be used to crush grains against this stone to prepare food.  Some of the stones were built into the floors.

This little guy was hanging around while I was walking on the trail.  For a while, it seemed like he was leading me.