Travis & Tara's Trip
Through Southern Arizona & New Mexico
March 16 - 25, 2001
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2001
Route: Silver City, NM - Gila Cliff Dwellings - Lordsburg, NM
Approximate mileage: 96 + side trips (This is wildly inaccurate because the "side trips" took hours)
Fearing missing out on the cliff dwellings (after being told it took forever
to get there), we fled the roach motel and headed up the scenic, windy, one
lane (total), two way road, passing the continental divide (for the third
time this trip). The trip out really didn't take that long - probably about
an hour, and we didn't see any other cars, and after paying a whopping $1
fee into a "we trust you'll do the right thing" receptacle, we embarked on
a gentle hike up to the cliff dwellings.
Here's the bridge that started our voyage. The dwellings are on the left face of that big mountain up ahead.
Here's what they look like from afar. The entrance is on the far side from
the bridge we first crossed, and these are fairly high up (which the photo
doesn't show well).
Here's a close up of one of the main (connected) dwellings. The poles sticking
out were originally wood, and there was wood planking enabling dwellers to
travel from one section to the next. The T shaped opening was a little hole.
Either the Mogollons were short, or they crawled into their dwellings.
Here's the view from inside the main cave that tourists are allowed in. You
can see how packed it was, thanks to its remoteness. On the way back down
from the cliff dwellings, Tara slipped, and as a consequence, the camera
was taken away from her.
Here's proof that we crossed the continental divide. This was our fourth, and last marked crossing of the divide.
Table Mountain occupied our attention for quite a while, and we decided to
investigate further. It was caused by volcanic activity that also caused
the formation of the huge boulders from the City of Boulders State Park,
a site so intriguing we had to stop there. (We skipped a formal lunch and
munched on whatever we had in the cooler).
The first image above is what Tara calls "the family". The scale on these
things is amazing. The interesting shapes are formed by the wind which blows
quite steadily through the area. It'd be a nice place to stay, except for
the wind and probably the heat. One can camp at various sites, but we only
saw two or three camping groups.
Travis is climbing into this rock's "ear". Amazingly, there aren't prohibitions
against frolicking. Tara didn't frolick, because her ankle was hurting from
her earlier slip. She did regain the camera, however, when Travis couldn't
resist the urge to climb.
This huge rock is supported by a relatively tiny rock underneath it. I told Travis to lie under it, but he wouldn't.
Here's a view of most of the boulders, with a trailer and some RVs for scale.
We then headed to Lordsburg for our last night in beautiful New Mexico, and
had dinner at an amazing vinyl restaurant called El Charro Mexican Restaurant.
It was decent "New Mexico" Mexican food. The sunset was beautiful as we checked
into our room at the Holiday Inn. We went out that night and looked at stars,
which were very bright, despite the proximity to the megalopolis that is
Lordsburg.
