The Gila (hee-la) Cliff Dwellings were used as shelter by humans for thousands of years. In the late 1200s, they were used by the Mogollon peoples, who built homes with property masonry within the natural cave walls.
Think on that for a second.
As many of you know, I majored in medieval history, with a focus on the Scottish Wars of Independence, the ‘Braveheart’ era of the late 1200s. While all of that was going on across the pond, the Native American peoples of the American Southwest were building structures that exist to this day. Like Casa Grande, the Gila Cliff Dwellings have shattered my view of world history.
One of the main reasons I was so eager to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings is that unlike Montezuma Castle, you can actually go inside the dwellings!
I made it! What a drive!
When you arrive at the end of highway 15, you have to turn left for the dwellings. Silly me, I went straight to check out the visitors centre, where I was told I should end with them and their little museum rather than start. Okay, back to my truck I went.
It was a bit more of a drive to get to the trailhead for the dwellings. There, a park ranger gave me the spiel about only bringing water and not touching the walls, as well as giving me a map and info about the trail.
The access fee is $3 (exact change only), that you put in an envelope that you slide into a box, or you can put your info and parks pass number on a card and put that into the box.
It’s about a mile round trip to the dwellings and there is quite a bit of ascent and descent over rough terrain. You need to be moderately fit and nimble to get up there.
The walk takes you through a narrow canyon to a view point where…
Bridge at the trailhead.
Over a river that was the lifeblood of the region.
Starting to climb.
The cliffs in the area all look like they were carved by people.
Another of several bridges.
More stairs.
… you turn around and, boom, there are the dwellings!
First glimpse of the dwellings!
Yet more stairs.
Still more stairs.
Lots o’ stairs.
Oh!
The caves were naturally carved out of the cliff faces.
Signs of human inhabitants.
This would have been a kitchen.
Incredible. Medieval-era ruins in North America and of comparable construction!
The walls didn’t go to the top to let the smoke out.
Prickly stuff. 🙂
Corn was grown up here.
Coming to the cave where you can actually go in.
More stairs!
Climbing up into a massive room.
The room was so large it didn’t feel claustrophobic at all.
Looking down into a room.
Signs of construction everywhere.
The soot stained ceiling dates back thousands of years, to well before the Mogollon people.
They used stones, mortar, and wood for construction.
More stairs!
Coming into another room from the last staircase.
This is the staircase you have to go down to leave the dwelling.
You can climb this ladder to look over a wall.
There were several rooms within the cave.
The quality of construction is amazing.
There was a guide at the end of the dwelling who had tons of information. She pointed out glyphs, hand prints, and other bits of interest. One thing that was really interesting is a huge slab of stone that predates the Mogollons that fell from the ceiling. The Mogollons built around it, but you know the stone fell before their time because the underside of it is black with soot and it sits above a grinding stone that you can just barely see underneath it.
Can you see the little glyph painted in red? There were lots of those all around the cave.
This corn is SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD.
To leave the dwelling, you can either go back to the entrance and take the stairs, or you can go down a ladder.
This is the ladder you can take to exit, just like the cliff dwellers would have done.
I did the ladder. It wasn’t scary since it was well secured to the cliff face. But the rungs were far apart and slippery, so I took my time.
What a vista.
More construction.
Spiny lizard posing for me.
Looking back at the ladder.
Steep climb down!
After I was reunited with my keys and had a small picnic, I went back to the visitors’ centre to view some artifacts and watch a movie. I learned a lot about the history of the region, but there’s a lot of conjecture since looters and raiders didn’t leave a lot behind to tell us the story of this place.
One compelling bit of info is that there are no burial grounds or trash piles around the dwellings. This speaks to them being places of transition and temporary housing, more than being a permanent settlement.
Another interesting fact is that there was no war around this time, or at least no evidence of it. People died young of infection. They ground the corn with stone, stone got in their food and wore down their teeth, their teeth got abscesses and the infections spread. Something like only two out every eighteen people lived to age twenty.
Essentially a medieval artifact…
Visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings takes effort because of the long and difficult drive there, but they are very much worth the detour. I am so glad I was able to visit them!
