Silver City, NM & Gila Cliff Dwellings
At various points over the years I've run into references about interesting cliff dwellings, camping, trails, and hot springs in Gila National Forest, and particularly in the area near Silver City, NM. Based on what I'd read and heard, I had this image of an exciting and relatively primitive, but accessible, area to explore. As happens, images often don't quite meet with reality -- the area wasn't anything like what I expected, but it was still very enjoyable to visit and explore.
The first fantasy to get destroyed was camping. Since I camp alone, I don't usually cook and thus my preference is for the campground to be within 10 - 20 miles of some diner or local restaurant where I can go to eat and meet locals. Also, since part of my traveling is to meet and talk with other travelers, I prefer campgrounds that aren't too crowded but where there are a few other campers. And, I prefer campgrounds where there is at least some form of a toilet (an outhouse is okay) and an accessible flat place to sleep. The public campgrounds near Silver City didn't meet any of these criteria -- they were too far out to get back in easily for breakfast, had only a couple of tent sites, and were very primitive (no toilet, very uneven ground). So, I ended up staying at the KOA in Silver City, which ended up being much more enjoyable than my previous experiences with KOA's. The camp site was fine, the showers were clean, the people were friendly, and ended up having some invigorating political discussions -- the only problem was that the KOA was just off the highway and not exactly a rustic experience.
Silver City itself was also not quite what I expected. There was an older downtown area of historic buildings that was similar to older mining towns I've visited. But then there was the relatively suburban sprawl that stretched several miles to the east, complete with multiple "big box" stores (e.g., WalMart, Home Depot) and chain restaurants. I should have also interpreted the name of the town more literally -- the area has some of the largest open pit mines that I've ever seen. But, I learned quickly -- if I went to the older downtown section where there were refurbished historic structures, I didn't feel like I was in "just another suburbia," and there was plenty to explore.
| It was difficult to find a good angle to capture the essence of the older part of Silver City, so this is the only picture. BUT, the architecture was interesting, the people that I encountered were friendly, and the restaurants were quite good. I expect I'll visit it again. |
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The north end of Silver City is the Gila National Forest and the road (NM-15) to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The road is very winding, narrow, and the trees are very close to the shoulder -- it often seemed to be not much more than paved animal tracks. Once you became acclimated to the fact that your average speed was going to be about 15 MPH and it would take an hour or more to get to the cliff dwellings, it was quite relaxing.
There was another shattered fantasy on the route to the cliff dwellings, but that was okay. Per various listings I've seen, there are multiple hot springs in the area -- but it turned out that none were very accessible and word was that most them were closer to being mud pits than springs. So, "soaking in a hot spring in the wilderness" was struck off the list of things to do and photograph.
Because much of the road to the cliff dwellings was heavily wooded, there wasn't much opportunity for interesting pictures until it came out on a fairly dry ridge, where there was a surprising amount of cactus growth.
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I wasn't quite used to seeing some of these types of cactus growing in an area that was fairly heavily wooded. |
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This very tall cactus (see next picture) covered quite a bit of space (note the orange spires in the background of this picture) with a surprisingly orange color bloom. |
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