Why Silver City:
I had one National Park Service site remaining in New Mexico: the elusive Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. It was just too far from Albuquerque (or Tucson or El Paso for that matter) to visit in a normal two-day weekend. When my friend Andrew and I decided to clean our road in Albuquerque over the three-day MLK Day weekend, we decided that this was the time to finally visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
January 18, 2025: Silver City
After successfully cleaning the highway with help from my friend Golden who happened to be driving through New Mexico en route from LA to Georgia, Andrew and I headed south.
An hour south of Albuquerque, we stopped in the tiny town of San Antonio for lunch. For some reason, San Antonio has two legendary green chili cheeseburger restaurants. We went to the Owl Café, which supposedly invented the dish. The vibes felt straight out of David Lynch movie.
The burger was delicious but I wouldn’t call it life changing.
From San Antonio it was another 2 hours to Silver City. Along the way we passed… virtually no towns. The last bit of the drive took us over the windy Emory Pass at 8,928 feet. There was some snow on north-facing slopes.
At 15:30, we finally reached Silver City. Silver City, as the name suggests, is a mining town through and through. While the town was formed over a silver ore depot, the main mineral now is copper.
Many Wild West figures passed through Silver City in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. This included Billy the Kid (Henry McCarty and later William Bonney) who moved here with his mother. His mother died in Silver City, making him an orphan at 15. Less than a year later, he committed his first crime: stealing food from a laundry. This was the start of his life of crime before he was finally killed at age 21 in Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico.
The most important moment in Silver City’s history occurred on July 21, 1895. Main Street, made of dirt, was always susceptible to flooding during the summer monsoon season (it had the nickname Mud Street). However, on this day, a 12-foot-tall wall of water ripped through the town, destroying Main Street and half of all the businesses. The main commercial street switched to Bullard Street and Main Street became known as the Big Ditch.
Silver City was also the finish line of the 2001 ensemble comedy Rat Race. The $2 million prize was stashed in a locker in the town’s train station. However, the movie was not actually filmed in Silver City and there is no train station. Ely, Nevada was the real filming location.
Despite being a mining town, Silver City is a very liberal place. It is a popular spot for older hippie retirees and Western New Mexico State University (which has a 100% acceptance rate) is here too.
The town center is cute with an exceptional number of vintage clothing shops. There are two theaters, a food co-op and many restaurants. Unfortunately, January is the off-season, so the town felt completely dead with many of the restaurants closed for the season. But we were told that the town comes alive in the summer.
After wandering as much of the town as we could and visiting the museum, we checked into our hotel and rested up.
For dinner, we headed 15 minutes north to the Buckhorn Saloon in the tiny town of Pinos Altos.
The saloon opened in the 1860’s. Andrew and I both ordered a steak smothered in green chili sauce. It was so delicious. Andrew rated it as one of his top meals in all of New Mexico.
Afterwards, we drove back to Silver City and went to bed early because there is no nightlife in Silver City.
January 19, 2025: The Gila Wilderness
At long last it was finally time to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The site is located 40 miles north of Silver City in the middle of the state’s largest wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness.
To reach the Cliff Dwellings, we had to drive for 2 hours along a windy two-lane road. Almost immediately, we lost cell coverage. The drive was mostly through forest but the last bit had some homes and ranches. The drive ended at the headwaters of the Gila River, which eventually flows all the way to Phoenix, Arizona. Legends state that Geronimo, the Apache chief, was born here.
The temperature was well below freezing. After getting the National Park passport stamp, we started along the one-mile loop trail to reach the ruins. A Park Service volunteer gave us a free guided tour of the cave.
The Gila Cliff Dwellings were built and occupied by the Mogollon culture in the late 1200’s and early 1300’s. This is a similar time frame to many other notable Southwest cliff dwellings such as Mesa Verde. It is unknown why they were abandoned. Many Native tribes such as the Apache consider these people their ancestors.
The ruins contain 46 rooms. Archaeologists believe the site supported around 40-50 people.
Overall, I was very impressed by the site and understand why it is a national monument.
At this point it was only 11:30 and we still had an entire day to explore. Rather than head back, we opted to go for a hike in the surrounding wilderness. Our hike was 8 miles. We started at a nearby trailhead and headed up a gentle sloping hill.
Once we reached the ridge, we descended the far side. Eventually, the trail started to follow a frozen stream. That stream led us into a dramatic narrow canyon called Little Bear Canyon.
Four miles in, we reached the Middle Fork of the Gila River. Another hiker told us that we were just 1.5 miles from some natural hot springs but it would involve 15 crossings of the nearly-freezing Gila River. We respectfully declined his suggestion and instead headed back to the car.
Our final stop in the area was a set of developed hot springs called the Gila Hot Springs. The complex has a series of private pools that you can rent for $8/person for a two-hour soak. The water was hot- 103 C! The host said that the water is pure and potable. We could only last 25 minutes in the tub but it was perfect after our long walk in the cold weather.
We then drove back to Silver City where we got New Mexican food for dinner.
Finally, we headed to the town of Lordsburg where we spent the night before heading west to Arizona. I already visited Cochise County, Arizona back in 2016 so there won’t be a post about it.
Final Thoughts:
Southwest New Mexico is very remote with far fewer sights than the northern and southeastern part of the state. Getting here is very difficult and requires at least a 4-hour drive from any major city.
I thought that the Gila Wilderness was spectacular. Our day there was truly perfect. This was very much a case of “the juice is worth the squeeze”.
Therefore, I would not recommend this area to the average tourist, but if you really love the Southwest and have already thoroughly explored New Mexico and southern Arizona, then this is a worthy destination. Additionally, there are several world-class multi-day backpacking routes in the wilderness.
January was absolutely the wrong time to come to this area. It was snow-free and devoid of people, but the weather was really cold (lows in the teens Fahrenheit) and about half of Silver City was closed. Any other season would be nicer than the winter here – I don’t think the summers get too hot.
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