The road to the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument was a very narrow and winding. But the scenery was worth the drive. This time of year the Gila river is fairly small but the river bed is wide and fairly deep. The foot path to the cliff dwelling wound through the narrow valley of the Gila and crossed back and forth. The history of the Ancestral Peobloans is fascinating, way too complicated to discuss here.
There was an interpreter at the top of the trial, at the ruin who was extremely knowledgeable and informative.
She answered a lot of questions we had about the area, and confirmed our guess that some of the rocks we were seeing were indeed volcanic. Millions of years ago this area had been extremely active volcanically. Which deposited a deep layer of sediment which consisted of volcanic ash and cobble from gravel size to small boulders. In some areas there were deep layers of pure volcanic ash. It was in these deep layers of sedimentation that the caves were formed.
The Cliff dwellings were built of slabs of this Gila Conglomerate, the volcanic ash and gravel cemented together by pressure, and mortar made by mixing water or urine with the dust that the volcanic ash part of the Conglomerate broke down into.
My pictures of cliff dwellings and pictographs that were at another site in the Monument are Here.
Duncan had to stay in a little kennel they had at the Cliff Dwelling contact center since dogs were not allowed in the ruins. They were dusty but otherwise “clean” and we used a padlock to lock him in.
On the way back "home" we stopped for homemade ice cream at a little tourist store.
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