July 30th on the National Forest Trip – The Forks campground in Gila proved to be a nice easy spot for the evening, with many empty spots around, even if the Tortuga was a bit annoyed at some nearby humans’ decision to come to the wilderness to play country music REALLY LOUD. (The Tortuga’s passive-aggressive response was to run the generator… well the Tortuga did need a little battery boost anyway… kind of…)
The morning proved that sometimes “one mile more” is just “one hour earlier than everyone else wakes up,” with a lovely sunrise walk and swim down by the Gila River in solitude.
Then it was off to the day’s next adventure, to explore the cliff dwellings. Even though a little hard to get to, the cliff dwellings are worth the trip. The entire walk will only take about an hour. The mysterious story of the ancient Mogollon American Indian tribes that built this place, and their disappearance, and the location that looks to be in a Western movie set all made the trip worthwhile. Seven caves carved into a sweet little spot in the cliffs, walking through fills the mind with images of a thriving little community, and questions about how they lived, and why they left.
What made the trip really great were the interpretative rangers that were on site. These are people from all over the United States, dragging an RV with them, and working 3 to 4 days a week with visitors. Not only did they take the time to move to an isolated location of great beauty, but they took the time to learn as much as they can about the site and pass it on to guests. The Tortuga engaged with 3 of these passionate interpretative rangers and their breadth of knowledge was the icing on the cake. The Tortuga was a happy camper. If you go and find one of these volunteers, ask them some questions. What is their story? What do they know about the place? What other nearby secret spots should you check out? Each time, it is a story of someone that wanted to leave their house and towns and go on an adventure, just one mile more than their normal lives had taken them. And this time, the Tortuga got a little tip to go check out an additional dwelling and some pictographs just down the trail at the Lower Scorpion campground.
About those Gila Monsters, coming down the end of the trail after visiting the dwellings, there were two relatives from the prehistoric past. Not monsters but some big lizards that only seemed mildly annoyed by people as they bathed in the sun. Still no luck finding Gila Monsters at Gila.
