National Parks 2023: Gila Cliff Dwellings NM

It’s time for the annual National Parks Club/KAL!

It’s time for the annual National Parks Club! Find out information about participating shops, Vacay Bingo, the KAL, and more here.

Where is it located?

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is located on the headwaters of the Gila River in southwest New Mexico.

Whose land does it reside upon / About this park:

For thousands of years, nomadic groups of Indigenous people used the caves above Cliff Dweller Creek as temporary shelter. In the late 1200s, people of the agricultural Mogollon (Southern Ancestral Pueblo) culture made it a home. They built rooms, crafted pottery and raised children in the cliff dwellings for one or two generations. By approximately 1300, the Mogollon had moved on, leaving the walls behind.

Until white colonialism disrupted life all over what is now North America, people from the Apache tribes occasionally entered Cliff Dweller Canyon, but apparently—and for reasons not adequately developed in the anthropological literature—they did not seem inclined to disturb prehistoric pueblo site. That all changed when white folks started to move West, and within a very short period of time, the abandoned dwellings were thoroughly pilfered. Honestly, the only reason the site is as preserved as it is is because of its remoteness.

When was it established?

November 16, 1907

Why did we choose these colors?

Our inspiration for the Gila Cliff Dwellings colorway revolves around the animals that make this place a home, instead of the people that once did. We chose this image of a Photograph of a Black-tailed Rattlesnake taken near the trail to the Cliff Dwellings (https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?pg=1910553&id=F20DEED8-155D-451F-67796B463DC48DFD&gid=F20DEE78-155D-451F-676515110ABF1623) as our inspiration.