Trail of the Mountain Spirits & Gila Cliff Dwellings

Oct 31/17 Weather sunny, high 60's to 70 for the next week so we are destined to get to Silver City, New Mexico; elevation is just under 6000 feet.  With the warm autumn season we will not have frost at night and fairly nice riding weather during the day.   Leaving interstate 10 the road is quite good for a motorhome (north US180) and about an hour later we arrived at Silver City KOA.

our map for the ride

the byway is back and forth; sensational motorcycle road

Our main reason to camp here was to ride out to the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  These interlinked cave dwellings were built by ancient Puebloan people in the cliff alcoves between 1275 and 1300 .  Archeologists have identified 46 rooms which they believe housed up to 15 families.   Plan on 6 to 8 hours on The Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway.  It crosses six climatic zones and a broad swath of the Old West territory made famous by the daring exploits of Native Americans, Buffalo Soldiers, frontier families and scurrilous outlaws (Billy the Kid). 

the dwellings from a distance on the hike up

think about how they built the inside structures into the cliffs

walking inside the rooms

From the trail head station it is a mile hike with some steep rock climbing.  Instead of hiking boots we had our motorcycle boots and that was a good thing as it is a bit rocky and rough.  We saw a few little lizards and a snake (eek!!!) on the trail.

this little guy blends right into the rock

You can walk into several of the cave dwellings and ponder how these ancient people built these rooms and structures with no tools.  Hard to imagine life almost 800 years ago here.  

Billy climbing down the ladder from the dwellings

Taking a picnic lunch would be a smart thing.... but on our Harley we had a couple bottles of water and a bag of Frito Scoops!!!   When I put the chips in our backpack Billy was laughing at me; but he was glad we had them.  There is no place to eat out there!!!    The ride back gave us time to think about how fascinating the ancient people of  the West were.  Did you know the Mogollon - early Puebloan's were a very small people.  The men were 5 feet at the most and the woman were 4' to 4' 5".  Obviously small but "mighty".   They are known for their unique pottery style  - Mimbres black and white. 

Mimbres pottery