Silver City - Cliff Dwellings

Leaving Tucson Monday morning, we headed to Silver City, NM, along with Jan and George. We arrived around noon and explored the downtown area in the afternoon and went to Pinos Altos where we had dinner at Buckhorn Saloon, former bordello, and drove around the area to see historic buildings. On Tuesday we explored the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City after driving 42 miles of very curving, hilly, narrow forest service roads. We took the docent led tour of the 7 natural cavities on the face of the cliff where the Mogollon Indians had built 42 rooms. The docent, a philosophy major and former teacher in Indian schools, had many theories of his own about the Mogollon culture and history. The tour included a one mile loop trail which had great views of the cliff dwellings and adjacent cliffs. We were fortunate to have a pleasant sunny day for our visit; snow remained alongside the road from a 3 inch snowfall the previous week. To see more pictures click HERE: http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/SilverCityCliffDwellings