Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

The road decides the visit. NM-15 runs north from Silver City through Pinos Altos and over the mountains of the Gila National Forest, forty-four miles that take an hour and a half to two hours. Much of it is narrow, with long grades of ten to twelve percent and no center line, and there is no cell service once Silver City is behind. It ends at the West Fork of the Gila, at the edge of the Gila Wilderness.

A one-mile loop trail crosses the stream on footbridges and climbs about 180 feet to five shallow caves in the cliff of Cliff Dweller Canyon. In them, people of the Tularosa Mogollon tradition built about forty rooms of local stone in the late 1270s, homes for several families, and most of the wooden beams still in the walls are the originals. They farmed corn, beans and squash on the mesa tops and along the river, and by about 1300 they had gone. Apache people later used the caves.

By the time Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the national monument on November 16, 1907, settlers and prospectors had already carried off much of what lay in the rooms, and the proclamation was meant to stop it. The monument is run jointly by the Park Service and the Forest Service, and entry is free. A short, accessible trail leads to a small alcove dwelling and a pictograph panel, and the TJ Ruin, a pueblo on the valley floor, also lies within the monument.

Pets are not allowed on the trail; the park keeps kennels for them. Trail hours are limited and change with the season, and Gila Hot Springs, a few miles away, has lodging and campgrounds.