Spectacular Cliffs of Gila Canyon
For the first time since we left home, we made a couple of commitments, first to meet up with friends in Flagstaff AZ and second, a reservation to camp in Zion National Park for three nights. We needed to be in Flagstaff by Friday which left us two days to squeeze in a couple more National Parks and drive all the way from Alamogordo to Flagstaff – a long drive through mountains. We headed out from Alamogordo on Thursday morning. On our way out of town we saw our first rattle snake – a huge dead one stretched out across the highway. Wish I could have gotten a closer look at that big boy! Younger daughter was happily snapping photos out the window with her “new” camera, a birthday gift she had been wanting for several years. The scenery was worth a few photos on that day. Our camping destination was the KOA in Silver City which took us through the city of Las Cruces, the site of my M.S. thesis field research. Just past Las Cruces we were stopped at a border patrol check point. We pulled up and rolled down the window of the Leviathan (our Great White Whale with the Department of Defense sticker prominently pasted on the windshield). The agent asked “Is everyone in the vehicle an American Citizen?” ”Yes” we answered so he waved us on through. Never looked in the back of the car, never looked inside Aquarius. Wow, our tax dollars at work. The border patrol was flying their flag at half mast. We hadn’t heard any news in several days so I was a bit worried seeing that and asked the agent why. One of their agents had died recently he informed us. We told him we were sorry to hear it but as we drove away my husband was muttering that federal agencies are not supposed to fly their flags at half staff except by the order of the President.
Our destination this day was the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Continuing our theme of learning about how Native People lived in different regions of the country, we were excited to explore this national monument. The only way to the Gila Cliffs is up a long steep winding mountain road so we drove first to Silver City KOA and parked the trailer at the campground. Thank heaven we did as the drive was every bit as exciting as advertised but the scenery was spectacular. By the time we reached the visitor center it was late afternoon. We had a quick look around the visitor center (which had a nice collection of artifacts) and picked up the junior ranger materials for the kids and then headed up to the “dwellings”. To reach the caves, you drive up to a parking area and then proceed to hike up through a small canyon. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and the place was practically deserted. The only folks we saw were the small cadre of volunteer rangers. Every chance we had, we talked to the rangers, especially the volunteers. They are an interesting bunch, primarily retirees who work seasonally in the parks in exchange for room and board. Often they would share their stories with us and were invariably interested in ours. I asked how many paid rangers the park had and was told 1.5 and a staff of 20 volunteers. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it is pretty pathetic that the park service is so chronically underfunded. On the other hand, it is kind of neat to think that just about any American who is sound in mind and limb could have the opportunity to be a volunteer to live and work in one of our glorious National Parks. My husband and I would could certainly see doing this some day when he retires (for the second time).
As we hiked up we saw a beautiful large spiny lizard but he scuttled into a crack in a rock before I could snap his picture. When we rounded the last switchback in the trail, the view opened up and we could see ahead of us the towering cliffs with the row of caves along the base and could just make out the rock walls at the front of the caves. To think these walls were built 1000 years ago by the Mogollon People! Two rangers were near the first cave and we spent quite a while chatting with them. It was time for them to close up shop for the day so one ranger accompanied us through the caves and gave us a personal tour. The other hiked down the way we had come to look for any stragglers. It turns out that Gila is one of very few Native cliff dwellings that are accessible to the public these days. The series of caves were mostly stripped of artifacts long ago by so called “pot hunters” who carried off any pots or other artifacts they could find to sell. The early anthropologists were not much better than the pot hunters. Still we have some clues as to how the People lived. The cave roofs have thick layers of built up soot from centuries of fires, there are impressions worn in the rock where corn was ground into cornmeal. Some ancient pictographs remain at the site, ancient paintings on cave walls which leave us to guess at their intended meaning.
Our Personal Ranger Tour Guide
According to our guide, the “dwellings” may not have been family dwellings at all but rather built spiritual retreat, food storage, and or fortification during enemy attack. This makes sense to me. Think of hauling water up to the caves or raising young children up there, it is hard to imagine. The caves were inhabited a number of different times as long as 1000 years ago and as recently as 700 years ago. Imaging technology shows that there is a large pueblo buried underground nearby. Perhaps some day an archeological dig will uncover the clues buried there. For now, we can only guess.
After we finished the cave tour we chatted for a while with one of our new ranger pals. He drove a groovy baby blue vintage VW van and had been coming down from Alaska for several summers to work at the park. He said the van had outlasted two wives. We were up for exploring some more so he directed us down to another area where there was a short hike to a small cave dwelling with a wall of pictographs.
Life is Good as a Volunteer Ranger
We made our way to the parking area he mentioned and looked for the path to the pictographs. As we started down the path we met up with a dear old couple going the same way. She was using a walker. He had strapped his belt to the walker and was attempting to pull her up the path. They had wanted to go to the cliff dwellings but had been stymied by the steep rocky path so the rangers had suggested they try this path. But this path, although short, was uneven and rocky and they were not making much progress. We fell to chatting with them only to learn that he was a Navy veteran who had served on the Midway. They had been big r.v.ers when their children were at home and were now full-timers. We met a lot of full time r.v.ers on our travels but most of them had huge class A motor homes, really a condo on wheels. These two were living full time in a conversion van. Talk about downsizing! After a short time, we scrambled with some difficulty up a steep slope covered with loose rock and sand. At this point, we realized we must be on the wrong path and we urged our new friends to not attempt the slope. We went on a bit and when we turned around, darned if our intrepid Navy vet hadn’t left the wife at the bottom of the hill and scrambled up after us. We were quite worried about getting down safely ourselves and even more worried about him so despite his urging us to go on ahead of him, we sent the kids down one at a time (little mountain goats that they are) and sort of escorted him down the slope.
Once back at the parking area, we located the correct path and we did find the dwelling and wall of pictographs. A family dwelling consisted of just a tiny cave, maybe 8′ by 10′ with a low wall built in front of it.
11/7/2010 Note: I see I wrote this draft ages ago but never finished or posted it. Here it is in draft form.
