Silver City, NM - Gila National Monument

We woke early this morning and headed for Gila National Monument. We're parked in a KOA outside of Silver City... and NO TRAINS! The area is mountainous, with green cypress and many naked oak trees on large rolling hills covered with prairie grass. It's a very pretty combination. I'd love to see it in two months with the flowers blooming and all the trees full of leaves. Here's New Mexico's version of "warning falling rock".

Gila National Monument surprised me. The Mogollon's (the pueblo tribe native to this area and possibly ancestors of the Hopi) made their home in the ash tuft, the same type of land as in the Badlands. Except here, water and vegetation reappeared. We rode over an hour through snow and pines on winding roads. The mountain scenery opened up to the wilderness which is a large caldera that's green with the Gila River. Beautiful. The picture on the right is a distant view of the pueblo you see on the left. They're in the top layer of rock on the left side.

We were able to walk through the ruins, observe the petroglyphs, and learn a little about the culture there.
Not much is known about the short use of the home. Theories range from a tribe looking for a temporary place with water until the drought ended (about 30-35 years). Others believe the place was for the shaman and those in his/her support role for the tribe's ceremonies. The difference is because this place only houses about 60 people and they've recently found another housing structure very nearby that can hold over 1200 people. The mystery still lies in why they left after only 35 years of use.

These are fossiled corn cobs left by the original Mogollons 700 years ago.

Afterwards we hiked some more further downstream and played inside a single family's pueblo built into the wall near the river. Very cool. More room than our RV and very well hidden. This is tucked away under huge cliffs in a corner by the river.


A little further down the trail almost looked like where the kids hung out. They had a sliding rock (like the one my grandsons slid down in Yosemite) and across the path the walls were covered with petroglyphs. These are examples of the more elaborate ones.