Out West Trip: Day 8 (Silver City, NM)

gila cliff dwellings - 29 may 2011

Today’s Highlights: Climbed up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, watched a lizard eat a centipede, found a Hawaii license plate.

We slept in a little in the morning and then decided to have the KOA breakfast. It was still quite windy, so our plates and napkins kept trying to fly away. We headed out of town on the scenic highway towards the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Evie doesn’t much like the hills, so it was fairly slow going. The views along the way were wonderful. We met a National Park firefighter who was on loan from Montana to help with the fires. Because of the high fire danger, parts of the park were closed and no fires alled at all, including propane stoves.

gila cliff dwellings - 29 may 2011

gila cliff dwellings - 29 may 2011

We made it up to the path for the cliffs; parking was tight because of all of the firetrucks. People said the hike up to the cliffs was difficult, but it actually was not bad at all. We got to walk through the dwellings. Camille wasn’t sure about going down the big ladder, but she did great! On the walk down, we spotted a huge lizard, maybe a gila monster?, eating a centipede.

We drove home on another road and stopped to look out over a HUGE copper mine. In town, we went by Walmart for some groceries, then back to the KOA for swimming, ice cream and relaxing.

My Trekaroo review.

Trip Stats:
Roadside Attractions: None. (Total: 9)
States: New Mexico. (Total: 6 – GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM)
State Plates Spotted: 2 (Total: 30)
Miles: 124 (Total: 2284)
Gallons of gas bought: 14 (Total: 149.3)
Poptops Spotted: 1 (Total: 3)
National Park Stamps: Gila Cliff Dwellings (Total: 3)
Miles walked: 3 (Total: 14.5)
Dollars saved with NP pass: 6 (Total: 32)
Continental Divide Crossings: 2 (Total: 2)

gila cliff dwellings - 29 may 2011