Day 55 April 28

Went to see the larger cliff dwelling site at Gila National Park today. Most astounding to us was that it is thought that the people who built these structures, the Tularosa Mogollon, only lived here for about 30 years in the late 1200's. It is estimated that this set of cave structures was home to about 10-12 families (40-60 people.)  They had a complex system of farming that allowed them to use the river valley floor to grow corn, beans, and squash.  The walls are in amazingly good shape.  Early after it was discovered  it was looted for pots and other artifacts by local settlers.   The Indians made mortar for the bricks, and copied building styles from groups further north.  They also traded with groups much further south and even kept Macaw Parrots as pets.

After the tour we went back to our camp.  We met a 20 something year old camper named Ben and his dog Luke.  We invited him to have lunch with us.  He had been living off the land in the wilderness for the last three weeks.  We thought we were traveling light, he had sold his truck and is attempting to live of the land so that he can right about the experience.  Ben shared stories with us.  One of the things he noted was that even though the wilderness area he was hiking is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island he rarely went a day without seeing at least one other person.  He has been learning to eat the plants in the area, but more fun was the animals he was eating, rattlesnake, lizards, gopher snakes, bullfrogs, and more.  He finds springs for fresh water, some of the springs in the area are hot springs, this area is still has magma sitting below the surface heating the water.  We enjoyed sharing stories with Ben and Luke for most of the afternoon.

180 feet above the valley floor

Multiple buildings inside the cliff

Nice mortared square walls

Water too hot to put your hand in.

Toward the end of the day we hiked out to a hot spring.  It was so hot you could not stick your hand in the out flow with out getting burned.  It was very weird to find a little stream in the wilderness that spewed out hot water.  Right above the spring was a Indian camping spot.