Guard the rig Chica!

I left Chica in charge of guarding the rig while I made a visit to the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  It is only 26 miles from our campsite, but it was all mountain driving.  I stopped along the way at an overlook and took the following pics.  The area is really beautiful.

I stopped at the Visitor’s Center before heading up to the cave dwellings.  I always like to get the history of the area first and see the many displays they have.  They had a show film on the history which is a must see.  The Visitor Center is rather small but very nice.  I took a couple of pics of their displays.

Then off to see the cave dwellings.

The Gila Cave Dwellings were free to those like me that have the Geezer card (America The Beautiful Senior Pass).  That card sure has saved me a lot of money!

You cross a bridge over the Gila River and head up a canyon that leads to the caves.  You will cross many of these small bridges as you continue to go up in elevation.  Then you reach a rather steep spot, but it is still easy going and then you reach the caves.

There is an easy path to follow from cave to cave.  Some of the smaller caves were probably used by a family.  There are also rangers at the caves that can answer any questions you might have.

There are also steps you must climb and ladders to descend to move from cave to cave.

It is really interesting to see the many rooms the Mongollon Indians who inhabited these caves built.  The rangers pointed out many of the rooms used for storage and living.

This is the view looking out to the other side of the canyon from a couple of caves.

The entire tour of the cave is about a mile.  It wasn’t difficult at all except for carrying the camera.  There were only a few people on the tour so I pretty much had the place to myself.

Beautiful Mountains…

I stopped at this place on my return and took a couple more pics of the mountains.  I bet it would really be neat to travel through these mountains on a horse.  I did see several corrals while traveling through here.

Chica did a good job.

Chica was really glad to see me.  I think she mostly sleeps while I am gone, but who knows.  She was a very happy girl.  We went for a walk and I told her all about the cave dwellings, but all she wanted to know was where was her dinner.

Camped at Walmart in Silver City

I am camped for the night in the Walmart parking lot in Silver City, NM.  I was thinking of traveling the 130+ miles to Rockhound State Park, but we had already traveled down the mountain which took over an hour of very winding roads.  That plus the wind was really blowing so we decided to hunker down in Silver City instead.

Early start tomorrow…

I hope to get an early for me (HA!) start tomorrow and head south.  I just hope there isn’t too much wind.