Desert Southwest Trip, Gila Cliff Dwellings

 

So here we are at the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

Lots of interesting things to see here!

First you have to take a hike, of course!, but hey, exercise is part of the fun!

When we approached it, I became amazed at how these Mongollan people were able to live here.  Can you imagine living in these rocks?  With no WalMart?  We're talking about the late 1200's here, that's what they say anyway (I don't know how they can be accurate with that date).  They really knew how to live off the land!

I would like to know how they kept their kids from falling off the cliff!

When you get up there you are allowed to roam freely inside the dwelling.  It's interesting to try to get a feel of what it must've been like to actually live there and call it your home.  Where would I sleep?  Where and how would I make cookies or bread?

this is the view they saw from the inside looking out

they say some of those wooden beams are the original ones, they were used for supporting the 2nd floor, which of course is no longer there

They even had petroglyphs there!  I was very excited about that because I have always wanted to see a real petroglyph!  Some of them were way up high on a wall way out of our reach and I wondered how they got them there, but then you have to remember that there were probably structures there that are no longer there.  They were so far away, we had to zoom our camera as far as it would go in order to get the photos.

snake?

So after we came back down, there's another trail you can take that forks off into two directions.  They are very short trails.  One of them leads to a rock wall with more petroglyphs.

turtle?

frog?

There was a lot to look at on that wall!  It's fun trying to figure out what those symbols mean, like trying to read ancient graffiti, but don't try too hard or you will be left feeling frustrated.  So cool to see them though!!!

The other short trail led to another dwelling place under a rock cliff.

Apparently it was a group of people from that same Mongollan tribe?  But we were trying to figure out why they were living separate from everyone else.  Were they ousted?  Or were they more important for some reason?  Anyway, it was interesting to get a glimpse into someone's ancient home.  The surroundings here (I think) were more suitable because it wasn't on a dangerous cliff (on the other hand, maybe the cliff was safer from animals and enemies?), but down here they were also closer to foliage and hunting, etc.  We walked around the area to get a feel of what it was like for those people to live there every day.

Anyhoo, that was really interesting to see!!

After we got done there, we spent the rest of the day driving so we could be closer to our next destination the next morning.

One the way we saw some animals and pretty scenery.

We drove for 6 hours and stopped in Alpine, AZ, after it got dark.  It was a little town in a high elevation.  With a population of only 145, it was hard to find a place to stay, but we found a lodge to stay in that was pretty nice, but it was kinda frustrating looking for it in the dark cuz you had to drive down some back roads to get to it.  Anyhoo, this is what we woke up to the next morning:

Is that SNOW?!

So our next stop will be the Petrified Forest!