What a treat the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument was!

The Mogollon people inhabited this area and the caves temporarily between 1270 to 1300. Some artifacts, such as old corn cobs and cave paintings remain. A nearby visitor centre houses some pottery, arrow heads, tools and jewelry. A video at the visitor centre gives a good introduction to the people who lived in this area.

Since our schedule isn’t fixed and our final route isn’t planned, we have the option to adapt to suggestions from local people. In today’s case we took the advice of a Park Ranger and visited the town of Pinos Altos. The town was built up in 1860 during a gold rush and Ranger’s tip was to go for steak dinner at the Buckhorn Saloon. The establishment has been used as a saloon since its inception in 1860. We arrived at 2PM but no steaks were available until dinner service started at 5PM.

We were so intrigued, we waited until 5PM sharp and then had a fabulous dinner.

It was amazing to see how this almost ghost town came to life in the evening through this restaurant attracting visitors from near and far.

We made it to Silver City, found a very nice city campground with a great pet walk and an even better laundry room where we washed all our dirty clothes.