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Gila Wilderness Area from the Trail of the Mountain Spirits. Image credit: Valerie Naylor. 

It is a journey where even the driver can get carsick. Signs along the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, a National Scenic Byway, warn travelers that it could take two hours to drive the 44 curvy miles from Silver City to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.

The road to the national park site is a narrow path, with the 558,000 acre Gila Wilderness, part of the 3.3 million acre Gila National Forest of southern New Mexico, on both sides. The great conservationist Aldo Leopold persuaded the U.S. Forest Service to establish the Gila Wilderness, the first designated Wilderness in the country, in 1924, 40 years before the Wilderness Act was passed.

The Gila National Forest is huge, but Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is small. You must leave your car on U.S. Forest Service land and walk into the 533 acre site that Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed on November 16, 1907. Over the last hundred years, the site's management has transferred back and forth between the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service.

I had not been to Gila Cliff Dwellings in 30 years, and was delighted to visit again. I met with Chief of Interpretation Andrea Eide, who had done some research in advance of my visit. She gave me the monument's history and brought me the park's accession book, which showed the first entry in 1942. I was not surprised that there were no archives related to Theodore Roosevelt located onsite.

Visitors explore the cave dwellings with the help of ladders. Image credit: Valerie Naylor. 

Due to its remoteness, monument visitation is light. The 79,000 visitors in 2018 marked a big year. November is not a busy month, so I also had the opportunity to talk with Casey Gardiner, who manages the cooperating association's small bookstore at the monument. I was pleased to see that they carried four good books about Theodore Roosevelt. The TR connection is not lost at Gila Cliff Dwellings – the site's color brochure mentions his role in creating the monument, as does the site bulletin that guides visitors along the trail. The monument was almost "de-designated" in the early 1960s, according to Andrea, but President John F. Kennedy expanded it instead.

I hiked the wonderful one-mile loop trail through the canyon and up to the cliff dwellings of the Puebloan people of the Mogollon area. Many groups of people inhabited this place over several thousand years, but the Puebloans built their dwellings in the late 1200s. They grew corn, beans, and squash, gathered food in the Gila River Valley, and hunted game. By 1300, they had moved on.

Gila Cliff Dwellings from the trail. Image credit: Valerie Naylor. 

I recommend a trip to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and also to the National Forest and Wilderness if you are so inclined. There is something for everyone in this wild area, preserved for us by visionaries like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold. We should all be grateful to them.