Pictures - Gila Cliff Dwellings

As Kathie said in the post yesterday we went up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings yesterday. The drive was very twisty. The local campsite has a warning on their web site - although it is only 39 miles it takes about 2 hours to drive from Silver City. I am glad we did not take the trailer there. By the way Silver City is where Billy the Kid grew up.

The cliff dwellings are in a remote area surrounded by mountains.

Here is the view from a look out just below the summit of the pass you have to drive through to get there.

In the distance you might be able to see a trailer park. Beyond the trailer park are the cliff dwellings - they are hidden.

Here is the front of one of the dwellings in the caves.

Apparently the T door has some sort of significance but they are not sure what it is. There are a number of ancient dwellings in the area with T doors. The doors are different widths and heights - and they do not appear to have used it as an entrance because there were other entrances.

In the picture below you can see a cave painting. It looks a lot like the aliens that we saw at Roswell.......

This is a panorama of about 16 pictures (2 rows 8 pictures each) of the view across the valley from the cliff dwellings.

The canyon is very steep and narrow.

The caves were used by a number of different groups over the years. The dwelling were build in the 1200's. The local tribes used them and then in the 1800's they were used by outlaws and ranchers. Below is some graffiti from 1882.