April 8 – Gila Cliff Dwellings

In the morning we take Lori’s car down the mountain to Silver City. We arrive in less than half the time it took us to drive up with our rig. From Silver we take a two hour drive to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The trail to the dwellings is a one mile loop with a fair amount up and surprise surprise and equal amount back down to the parking lot. Before we are allowed to begin the trail we need to have the rules explained and we are required to adhere to the rules. Must carry water up; must not have any other food on your person including anything fully wrapped; cannot be chewing gum; cannot go off the trail; and can only go in specific areas within the actual cliff dwellings. The rooms accommodated roughly 40 to 60 people for only about 25 years around 1300 AD. Here a group of people could meld their lifestyle with the surrounding environs.

After the adventure we headed back to Silver where we enjoyed one of the art centric town’s restaurants.