City of Rocks & Gila Cliffs

Family and Friends - We have a stowaway! And this is after we went through a border inspection yesterday. They had the dog and everything but didn't find him.  Last night Tom could hear him munching on something - turned out to be my Pampered Chef spatula :[ Its a mouse! I actually think he may have come with us from NY!!!  War was declared and Ralphie (Tom named him) lost.

... might Ralphie have had a family ...

City of Rocks State Park (campground) is one of the strangest places.  In the middle of the pretty flat desert sits a cluster of boulders of all shapes and sizes - a rock city.  They range in sizes and shapes and would make the coolest place for hide and go seek or capture the flag.  Hidden among the rocks in several locations are petroglyphs - these are pictures that have been carved into the rocks by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.  So far we have found two. 

Cocopeli - the God of Fertility
Its in a hole (about 5 inches in diameter) in the rock about 4 feet off the ground.  A small rock covers it to protect it from being faded by the sun.

Gila Cliff Dwelings - National Monument

The ride to Gila Cliffs was really cool.  We traveled up and over mountains (Gila elevation was 7,440 ft.) and crossed the continental divide (7,080 ft.).  We started in the hot desert, saw snow in the mountains (again) with spectacular views and ended in the hot desert. (and this in only a little over two hours of travel)


There are more questions than answers about the people who built structures in natural caves of Cliff Dweller Canyon.  They built inside the caves between the late 1270's and 1300.  Much of the artifacts from the caves had been looted and the caves themselves were vandalized.  Archeologists have pieced some parts of the story - but much remains up to imagination.

The people who built the cliff dwellings were part of the Mogollon culture.  They combined hunting and gathering with farming and traditionally built pit houses or surface pueblos in the mountainous areas of Arizona and NM.  The Mogollon found abundant game and fertile soil in the Gila river valley for both native vegetation and their crops of corn, beans and squash.  (Remember your history ... the three sisters!)  Breaking with tradition the Tularosa Mogollon built inside the caves of Cliff Dweller Canyon with rock, mortar, and timbers from trees cut between 1276 and 1287 - but by 1300 they had moved on. (The dating was done by boring small bore holes into the logs and dating them by their rings - they were also compared to trees in California.)

You hike along the floor of the canyon, where the creek runs, and then the trail climbs until you reach the cliff dwellings.  It is amazing to think that they walked the same route - even longer - because they planted their crops on the top of the cliff opposite their dwellings.

Approximately 40 rooms were built inside several natural caves in Cliff Dweller Canyon.  Artifacts and architectural elements show that they traded materials and ideas.  They left behind macaw feathers from Central America and their T-shaped doorways came from methods learned from other cultural groups.

They also had a unique style of black on white pottery - really nice.

There are seven caves in total - five have been restored, the sixth is full of rock and the seventh is inaccessible (too high up).  Archeologist repelled into it but found it empty (looted).

They think that this room was used as a tannery - it has a small opening at the top (see the little one way at the top) where the smoke would have come out - and they also found traces of uric acid.

There's cave #7.

This area also had pictographs - these are "paintings" the Mogollon people made on the walls of their surroundings.  They ground a reddish rock called hematite into a powder and mixed it with animal blood.  They would make paint brushes from the leaves of the yucca plant.  To paint a hand, they would use a reed as a straw and blow the paint over thier hand to make a reverse image.

... tune in tomorrow to see if Ralphie brought his family on the BIG TRIP ...