One last stop before I go to Mexico.
I want to hit the boarder early in the day to avoid big line-ups and so that I can get a good distance away from the boarder before nightfall (all the bad stuff going on in the area at the moment)
Anyway, in order for that to happen, I have about a half a day to burn in Arizona... and I rode past another of those signs that said "Gila Cliff Dwellings 42Miles"
So, Off I went.
And the road is paved but really narrow... and really windy. Its one of the windiest little roads Ive been on in the US.
Its a little too windy to really get into it on the big heavy bike and there are a few too many pine needls on the road for me to feel that its totaly safe, but I have a nice curvy ride for an hour or so.
Its a "dead end" road, and the only thing out here is the Cliff Dwellings. Im surprised its so far from everything.
Apparently this site is a real transition for the people who built it all those hundreds of years ago.
The Anasazi dwellings from further North are all very high up on cliff faces and the people used the tops of the Mesas for growing their crops. The more modern Puebloan peoples live in the valleys and built their adobe homes near more permanent sources of water at the lower altitudes.
The transition period was a drought that apparently lasted about 25 years and really changed the society. All the high cliff dwellings were abandoned and the puebloes started.
But, from carbon dating etc it seems that the Gila Cliff dwellings were built and occupied right in that transition time. They figure that it was only home to the builders for about a single generation (20-30 years) before it too was abandoned.
My unskilled eye can see that its built in very low cliffs, and the valley floor is where the crops were grown (they found evidence of irrigation channels etc) , not above on the plateau...
It does seem to make sense...
So, I walk around and take a few pictures and then ride back and find one last camp site here in the US.
Tomorrow I "make a run for the boarder" :)
