Day 3 Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

I got up early and made coffee, then into Walmart to do my business. I drove to the Visitor's Center in Silver City and parked. I walked the streets of Old Town and returned in time for the Visitor Center's opening. The lady there was funny, not real helpful. It was going to be only 20 degrees up at Gila Cliffs, so I said, "I'd like to find a campground at a lower elevation because it's cold," she responded, "You must not be from the desert. It's always cold at night."  I said, "Actually, I'm from Desert Hot Springs, and it's in the high 30's there, not the low 20's."  I asked about State Parks. She didn't know anything. I asked if there were campgrounds nearby. She didn't know. I did manage to nab quite a few brochures, so I'll answer my questions myself. I did ask her how long it would take to get to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. She said about 2-2.5 hours. Yikes!

I drove up to the Cliff Dwellings. The trip is only about 40 miles but the road is very narrow and winding. It ended up taking me about 1. 5 hours. The Visitor Center movie was very good, explaining why they thought the natives moved into the cliffs and why they left after only about 25 years. The walk to the Dwellings was short, maybe 1.5 miles round trip, but steep. I went up counter-clockwise to avoid the 185 stairs. I came back down the way I went up. It wasn't too hard but I am WAY out of shape and had to stop twice to rest and let my heartbeat slow down. 

I took a lot of great photos. Here are a few.

The "T" shaped windows were explained to us as a way of identifying at least one man who lived there. The window represents a man with a haircut particular to a certain tribe, with bangs, and cut at the chin. I'm not sure if this is true, I haven't been able to find anything online about it, but it was an interesting explanation. 

On the way up, I stopped at Gila Hot Springs. Wonderful, beautiful place. $8/night to camp and use tubs. About 12 places close to 3 tubs right on the river. This is a working farm. The lady raises goats so there were hundreds of goats, and lots of cute babies. I thought about Michael, my son-in-law, who loves goats!  He'd like this place! I decided 20 degrees was just too cold, so I didn't stay the night there, but it sure would be convenient if a person was there in a little warmer weather. You could stop and reserve your spot before going up to the Dwellings. The camping spots are nicely spaced, and all are right on the riverbank. A very sweet place!

This beautiful cliff is the first thing you see to your right driving up the highway.

A wonderful sculptured fountain!

The pools are VERY clean and right on the river

It's nice to have shade!

 Coming down, I took a different route, passing by a pretty lake and several campgrounds which were still closed for the season. Apparently they all open in April. The road was MUCH better.  Route 15 going up was VERY narrow and curvy, though beautiful. I think if you had an RV it could take up to 3 hours to get up there.  Route 35 and 61 coming down was MUCH easier and if I were going up again, it is the route I would take. I actually drove about 50 mph most of the way. It took about 1.5 hours to get down to City of Rocks State Park.  

I bought a non-resident yearly pass for $225. I figure I'll get my money's worth by staying in NM a good 6-8 weeks until time to head back to the Pacific Northwest. I wanted to at least try it to see if it was a good deal and based on what I'm seeing at City of Rocks, I think I'll be really happy! There are toilets, garbage cans, and hot showers here. The dry campsites are nicely spaced apart. The electric ones are much closer together - but I don't need electricity. 

They actually give you TWO passes, one for your vehicle and one for your trailer. I made the mistake of putting the trailer one on the car. In fact, I should have done what one of my friends later suggested, and that would be to laminate BOTH. Then I could have given the passes to someone when I got back to Arizona.  I'm not sure I'll use this long enough to make it pay for itself, but I wanted to see as many of the state parks as possible to decide if this was an option for me.  Thought I'm having a great time, I think there's nothing here that's any better than Quartzsite, Arizona, for me, anyway. I plan on spending summers in the Pacific Northwest and winters down in Quartzsite area. But this trip was on my bucket list, so I'm happy I'm doing it now.

There really isn't much of a cell signal here, which sort of suck and is sort of good.  I'm wanting to be alone, so I'm fine with no internet now and then. I reserved my spot for 5 days - until Sunday - though tomorrow night I'm camping at Faywood Hot Springs. Gonna just leave my chair and a few other items here and hold my place.

I'm feeling a little better after my meltdown. It felt good to get a lot of that off my chest - I really do feel better when I'm living out of the van - out in nature. My mother called the 2nd night and I had to spend time on the phone with AT&T.  It was a little stressful. When I told her I was thinking of buying an RV, of course, she said "I wish you wouldn't spend your money on an RV!" But honestly, I think the reason she wants me to buy a HOUSE is so she can buy one near me in Desert Hot Springs, and I'm not sure that's what I want. I think it would be too much stress for me to have to deal with her constant negativity. I am very sorry that her life isn't what she wants it to be, but it's HER life, and I don't want to live it. I'm VERY happy living my own. I told her I was happy traveling. I've told her many times. 

I put my angry post back into draft form. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I had a bit of a meltdown on my first night, and shared things that probably shouldn't have been made public, though I had a LOT of support and that really helped me.

I need to find a Toyota dealer somewhere along the way.   My spare tire moves around - it sort of "floats" beneath the van, and I believe it should be more stable. I also want to get this fucking alarm disabled!  I hate this damned thing! I keep setting it off by accident.

The little van is doing fine otherwise. Comfy-cozy. Gas mileage has been pretty good, about 16 mph but I've been driving 80-85. Speed limit here is 75 and everyone goes 10 miles faster. There's really no way to safely drive 65 mph without pissing everyone off.

Not yet sure where I'll go from here. I'll spend some time looking into that in the next few days.

Now, it's time to get ready for bed ... after I go take a look at the stars.

I bet there will be a kazillion of them!

Sleep well, friends!

Annie