Mountain Spirits and Cliff Dwellers

Caves protect the dwellings built by Mogollon Indians between 1276 - 1287

The Gila National Forest is not only rich in scenic beauty and solitude; it is a place of spirits.  Pit homes of prehistoric peoples have been dated to 550 CE.  Many people have walked through this forest since then – from the Mogollon Indians that built the cliff dwellings to the Chiricahua Apache to Spanish and Mexican explorers then Anglo miners, homesteaders and soldiers.

The geology of the area created many riches – the Gila River and its floodplains, plentiful hot springs, a variety of wildlife and a wealth of minerals. No wonder so many people have been attracted to the Gila through the ages.

The preservation of these ruins is amazing!

 
We visited the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument after it had rained most of the night on our third day camping in the forest.  The rain was clearing out but we still had drizzle as we arrived at the trail to Cliff Dweller Canyon.  There had been a small rock slide caused by the rain and part of the trail was closed.  Luckily we were still able to go up to see the dwellings.  The trail climbs steeply 180 feet above the canyon floor and the rain made it a slippery walk in places and there were some deep puddles of water to navigate.  Rounding the last curve and catching site of the dwellings made it all worthwhile. 

Inside Cave 5

Thanks to the natural protection of the caves, the dwellings are beautifully preserved.  We roamed the six caves and listened to a ranger interpret the site.  It is believed that 10 – 15 families lived in these caves with about 46 rooms.  But they only lived there a few decades.  Why did they go to so much trouble building their remarkable homes only to abandon them a short time later?  No one knows for sure but cycles of drought have been common in the Southwest and then as now, people have had to cope.  Perhaps they were no longer able to sustain themselves when water became scarce.

The sun started to come out as we headed down the trail.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the visitor center and surrounding areas.  I didn’t know that Geronimo was born near the headwaters of the Gila River.  His family band, Be-don-ko-he of the Chiricahua considered the Gila their homeland.  

One thing I wish I’d made time for was a soak in one of the many hot springs along the Gila River.  Some are commercial but there are several along the river in the forest – the cost of a soak is only a few miles walk. 

Looking down into the canyon from inside Room 5

   

The apple trees were in bloom!

Wild Places...

 

“Like wind and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.  Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” – Aldo Leopold

Pools in the canyon on Little Dry Creek Trail

Two years ago when we first started our travels we had plans to visit the Gila Wilderness.  But 2012 was a big fire season and the Whitewater Baldy Fire was raging in the Gila National Forest and Wilderness.  When it was finally contained late in June of 2012 about 300,000 acres had burned making it the most extensive fire in New Mexico history.  300,000 acres is a lot of forest to burn but fortunately the Gila National Forest is almost 3.3 million acres with one-fourth of it designated as wilderness.

We had never done any hiking in the Gila so this year we wanted to visit and see how it was recovering nearly two years after this devastating fire.  The Gila has long held a fascination for us partly because of its size and remoteness but also because one of our heroes, conservationist and pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold, was instrumental in the designation of the Gila as the country’s very first wilderness area.  Maybe some of you have heard of Aldo Leopold and know his book, A Sand County Almanac.  It is a must read if you treasure nature.

View of the Gila Wilderness, our country's first wilderness, from the Aldo Leopold Vista

In 1909 after Leopold graduated from the Yale School of Forestry, he accepted a job with the newly formed Forest Service at the Southwestern Regional Office in New Mexico.  I like to picture Aldo Leopold as a wide-eyed young man who had never been out of the east, stepping off the train in Albuquerque into a wild west – a rugged and remote land that would shape him and forever change his life.   Over the next several years influenced by his experiences in the Gila, a new perspective on wildlife management would be born and Leopold would soon discover a passion for ‘wilderness as a resource.’ 

Headed into the wilderness, no roads in site...

Leopold believed that people need the solitude of wild places and he defined wilderness as enough undeveloped land that a person could ride horseback for two weeks and see no roads or houses or other signs of civilization.  Leopold’s vision helped inspire the 1964 Wilderness Act that now preserves the wildness of over 109 million acres of federal public lands.   David and I are doing our best to spend some time walking and camping in as many of those wild places as we possibly can. 

Little Bear Canyon

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold  

From Silver City, the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway winds its way from the high Chihuahuan desert through narrow canyons to the snow-touched wilderness and headwaters of the Gila River.  After driving this beautiful byway we camped just a few miles from the Gila Cliff Dwellings on the edge of the national forest.  The next few days we took hikes into the wilderness along the middle and west forks of the Gila River and visited the cliff dwellings. 

Maya in the Middle Fork of the Gila River

 

Some of the trails into the wilderness were in very bad shape.  First there was the fire two years ago and then this past September there was a big flood.  Many of the burned trees were uprooted and washed into the Gila River.  We talked to one group of hikers that said they just gave up at one point and hiked down the middle of the river, it was easier than trying to follow the trail blocked with downed trees.  The Gila is pretty deep and swift in places and we didn’t think we were prepared for immersion in cold water most of the day so we avoided those trails.  (Maya probably wouldn’t have minded it, but we aren’t as tough as she is.)

Burned area along the West Fork of the Gila River

Our hikes, while definitely not as adventurous, were still a lot of fun.  We took the higher and drier trails through smaller canyons but still hiked down to the rivers.  David and Maya came within inches of a beautiful (and large) Blacktail Rattlesnake.  Lucky for us these snakes are generally docile and this one was still sluggish and cold - he didn't even rattle at us.  But that was exciting enough for us. 


Sluggish Blacktail Rattlesnake
 

And here's the black tail in the lower right corner

One of the burned areas

We did pass through some of the forest that was burned, but it was more of a mosaic of burned and unburned forest.  The wild flowers were putting on quite the show, probably benefiting from the extra light reaching the forest floor after the burn.  On our hike closer to the cliff dwellings we saw several sets of hikers and backpackers but on our hike through Little Dry Creek Canyon it was just us, the pool-filled canyon and the solitude of the wilderness. 



Columbine



Soaking tired feet in a cool mountain stream is wonderful!

 

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked    3

Total Miles Hiked   17.17

Ave. Miles per Day      5.72
Total Elevation Gain       2,574
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   858

Some Enchanted Evenings...

"On the road" from New Mexico

It is Easter Sunday evening and David and I just enjoyed a sublime New Mexico sunset.  The Land of Enchantment sure knows how to do sunsets and we have been enjoying our share this past week.  At last we are ‘on the road’ and it feels fine.

On April 14 we left Odessa, saying goodbye to my parents.  They are our last stop before we begin our journeys.  Mom and dad had a big year, both of them turning 80 in 2013.  This summer they will have their 60th wedding anniversary!   It is always hard to say goodbye to them but it feels good that they are so supportive of our adventures.  Still, I am really going to miss them… 

 

Lea Lake, the largest of the 'bottomless' lakes at 90 ft. deep

 

As we crossed the New Mexico border on that straight and seemingly endless road to Roswell it finally seemed like the journey had begun.   After having dinner in Roswell with our long-time friend Steve, we spent our first night at Bottomless Lakes State Park.  A popular swimming hole for the locals, the lakes are cool and deep, but not really ‘bottomless.’ This time of year the park is one of those places that easily could be overlooked but on our first night out it was enchanting – a stroll to watch birds along the wetland, a beautiful sunset and the full moon rising.  Much later that night some people watched the full eclipse of the moon. 

City of Rocks State Park

The next day we headed to Las Cruces in time to have lunch with my mom’s favorite cousin before spending our second night at City of Rocks State Park north of Deming, NM.  City of Rocks was a place we had never been and it was definitely worth the trip.  By day, the park is impressive enough with its jumble of huge tuff formations.  But at sunset it really rocks!  The colors intensify and the shadows animate the rocks creating a ‘rock city,’ thus the name.

 

 

About 34 million years ago this part of New Mexico experienced a very large volcanic eruption of ash 1000 times larger than Mt. St. Helens. Tons of ash were deposited in this formation known as the Kneeling Nun Tuff.  Then the weathering process started.  Millions of years of wind and water and freezing and thawing sculpted the rows of monolithic blocks.  The rock formations at the park are so unique that they are only known to exist in six other places in the world.  (I’ll have to find out where those other six places are…) 

 

After wandering the ‘avenues’ of the Rock City and enjoying the desert in bloom we traveled a few miles down the road to Silver City.  We had a great time sightseeing and visiting the museum on the campus of Western New Mexico University where we saw some beautiful Mimbres pottery.  The next day we drove the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway up to the wild and remote Gila Wilderness to spend several nights ‘away from it all.’

The desert in bloom, claretcup hedgehog cactus


We are back in Silver City tonight and have electricity, phone and Internet again.  What a great first week ‘on the road.’  I’ll be telling more about our wilderness adventures in just a day or so…  

The Adventure Begins -- Year Three!

Spring storm approaching Llano River State Park near Junction, TX

With spring finally here it is time to load the RV for our 3^rd year ‘On the Road with Maya.’  We are excited to follow the road to new places for yet another spring, summer and fall.  We aren’t sure how long we are going to keep up our wandering ways.  Maybe like Forest Gump, one day we will just be done and want to go home.  But in the meantime, here we go again.

We’ve been very busy these last two weeks saying goodbye to Government Canyon, San Antonio and our friends and family all over Texas.  The RV is serviced, cleaned and ready to go and so is the car.  Maya, David and I have had our checkups too. We have all been declared ‘road worthy.’
 

Going 'east' - The Blue Ridge Parkway

Last year’s eastern journey following the Appalachian Trail exceeded both David and my expectations.  Starting on the Natchez Trace Parkway then over to Georgia and up the Blue Ridge Parkway and eventually arriving in Maine, we couldn’t have asked for more.  The journey was filled with spring flowers and rains, fantastic hikes along the AT and other trails, breathtaking drives, lots of history, fresh picked blueberries, lobster, pink granite next to blue, blue ocean and the most amazing fall leaves ever.

Dogwoods blooming along the Natchez Trace Parkway

From the time we left Texas last April and crossed the Louisiana border until the time we crossed back into Texas from Arkansas in November we traveled 8,427 miles in the RV and drove another 8,222 miles in our Honda CRV sightseeing.   We were ‘on the road’ outside of Texas for 213 days.

Thanks to David’s new GPS unit we also have hiking statistics that we didn’t have for our first year’s journey.  We hiked 630.43 miles (it felt like more!) which only averages out to about 3 miles per day.  But we only hiked about half of those 213 days, so 6 miles a day isn’t so bad, I guess.  And when you figure in the elevation gain of 113,165 feet, that’s like climbing Mt. Everest a tiny bit less than 4 times (without the altitude effects, though).  Now we have a goal and we have to see if we can top that this year. 
 

Hiking in Acadia National Park, Maine

Ping, pong – west, east.  So it is “westward, ho” this season.  We traveled west in 2012, our first year on the road, but we didn’t start the journey until the middle of June after our house sold.  The summer of 2012 was hot and dry so we went north very quickly.  This year we thought we would try to visit some of the southern parks and forests in our beautiful country before the heat sets in.  But as always weather, fires and other acts of nature will guide our journey.

People always ask us, “Where is your favorite place?”  And we have a hard time with that question because there are many, many wonderful places – it is hard to choose!   We are not the least bit worried that we will get bored going west again.  By fall we should have a whole new list of ‘favorite places.'

 

Adios, Texas...

 

A Natural Area

A beautiful canyon sunset

David and I started volunteering at Government Canyon over 12 years ago before it opened to the public.  Although the experience of being Park Hosts is new for us, the place is like an old friend.

Government Canyon is one of the newest properties in the Texas State Park system and many of our friends that aren’t from around San Antonio may not be that familiar with this ‘state-managed area.’  I use the quotes because Government Canyon State Natural Area (GCSNA) is not a state park.  Like the name says, it is a natural area.  The difference is one of mission.  A park’s purpose is primarily recreation while a natural area’s mission is to protect the resource and to promote research and education.  

Cindy on duty...

Natural springs have attracted people and wildlife to Government Canyon for centuries.  From Native American occupation to an army supply route to western forts (thus the name, Government Canyon) followed by farming and ranching and then in the late 1970’s a proposed housing development for 80,000 – all have been part of Government Canyon’s history.

Wildcat Ranch barn - part of the ranching heritage of Government Canyon

Today with San Antonio’s rapid development and the growing awareness of the importance of the Edwards Aquifer as the city’s main water supply, a new role for Government Canyon has emerged.  During the past 15 years, over 12,000 acres of land were acquired to become GCSNA, much of it over the aquifer’s recharge zone.  The idea is that this land will not be developed and that will keep many sediments, chemicals, pesticides, etc. from washing off and entering the aquifer.   Texas Parks and Wildlife agreed to manage Government Canyon as a State Natural Area ensuring that resource protection would be the priority.

 

David helps child 'Name that Snake' at this year's Snakefessst Event

 
GCSNA may be one of San Antonio’s best kept secrets.  There are just a few miles of road to the visitor center and the campground and then hiking and mountain biking are the only ways to get around.  Dogs are allowed on the Front Country Trails.  The Back Country Trails are over the recharge zone and are the habitat of several endangered species so those trails are for humans only.  To help protect its resources and limit overuse, GCSNA is only open 4 days a week.  It isn’t unusual for the trails to be closed after rains to prevent trail erosion or for sections to be closed during Golden Cheek Warbler breeding season.

Redbuds blooming - one of the first signs of spring

And Mountain Laurels too...

 

Our time at Government Canyon has been so much fun!  We have hiked and helped out and learned new things.  We’ve made some new friends with staff and other volunteers.  And mostly we’ve enjoyed getting to be residents for a short time in such a beautiful and wild place.  It isn’t often you can be out in the wild so close to such a big city.  We are going to miss those beautiful starlight walks with Maya where all you can hear is your breath and maybe some howling coyotes or the calls of owls.