Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

 

Our trip today was to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City, NM. The cliff dwellings at Gila are similar to those at Mesa Verde but on a much smaller scale and in a remote location. My first visit to the cliff dwelling was back in 1997 when I lived in Albuquerque. The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is a U.S. National Monument created to protect Mogollon cliff dwellings in the Gila Wilderness on the headwaters of the Gila River in southwest New Mexico. Considered by archaeologists to be on the northernmost portion of the Mogollon people's sphere of influence, the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is home to two prominent ruins sites among a collection of smaller sites located within the Gila Wilderness inside the Gila National Forest. Archaeologists have identified 46 rooms in the five caves on Cliff Dweller Canyon and believe 10 to 15 families occupied them.