A Snapshot and The Scoop: Gila Cliff Dwellings

I will never, ever get tired of visiting cliff dwellings. Ancient Native American dwellings like those in Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument located in southwestern New Mexico dot the desert southwest, and though they share many similarities, each holds stories and a history unique to themselves. Most are built within sandstone alcoves, usually with a tiny little seep spring at the back that provides life-giving water, or else on a shelf above seasonal creeks that flood less often than they're dry. Occasionally though a series of alcoves and shelves are jammed full of stone and mud dwellings above a perennial stream, and it is there that you know the ancestors truly flourished. Time has erased their little farming plots, where they grew corn, squash, and beans, leaving only the grind stones and broken pottery behind to mark the passing of the years. The drier the area, the better preserved the ruins, and sometimes even the original timber support poles remain in place, though the roofs they supported are long gone. If you ever get the chance to check out cliff dwellings, don't pass up the opportunity!