The Original Condo - Walk Up for Six Storeys, Beautiful View of the Other Canyon Wall

Saturday, April 30th – Gila National Forest– Day 79 

 The night was cold. We ended up getting the kids into our bed one by one. My feet were freezing. The temperature got down to zero degrees Celsius. We woke up to a beautiful view though. The temperature slowly improved until we could function properly. 

 As always, our first stop is the visitor centre. Ranger Molly gave us junior ranger packages and fantastic advice on trails and hikes. We hung around watching a movie about the area while working on activities. We decided on seeing the Gila Dwellings first, the reason we drove three hours into a forest and follow that with the hot springs on the Middle Forks Trail. 

 We drove to the site of the Dwellings. No food was allowed so we tried to get the kids to eat as much as possible to delay the meltdowns. We got our junior ranger vests and hiking sticks ready. We crossed a bridge and started the switchbacks up the side of the cliff. There were some areas where John needed to be intensely supervised. We had a lovely green canyon to look out upon as we walked. 

 When we reached the first dwelling, we took stairs up into the community. A group of Indigenous New Mexicans called the Mogollon people built these houses inside caves on the face of this cliff. The total population of the community would probably be 30-40 people. Apparently, it was a dangerous time and the added protection of the location made dragging food and water up the cliff worth while. 

We looked around and then settled on a bench in the cave to work on junior ranger activities. John wanted nothing more than to touch and climb on the walls. We needed to deliver a few stern words to try to prevent it. We took a ladder back down to the path before we continued down the path to see some additional caves and structures. Once we were done admiring, we took the path back to the visitor centre and received our badges. A quick stop for lunch and we drove to the trailhead for the Middle Forks trail. 

We were told a half mile would take us to natural hot springs. John had passed out on the journey over, so I carried the little guy. We reached a river crossing in no time. I had to put John down on the ground, remove my shoes and bring my stuff to the other side, pick John up, carry him over, put him down to put my shoes on and pick him up again; he did not wake up. Once we hit the second river crossing, he thankfully woke up. A little while later we were in the hot springs. The hot springs were on the Continental Divide trail; we met hikers just starting to head up to Canada. It is a very romantic notion to hike the full Continental Divide trail. Maybe one day. 

We settled in with a couple from El Paso, Amorita and Perry, with their son Diego. We all got along well and chatted about topics spanning from geology to pregnancy with a comparison of health care systems in between. After an hour hanging around, we hiked back together and invited them to come to the campsite later. 

 We returned to the campsite, and I made chili. Perry, Amorita and Diego showed up. The adults chatted, the kids played, and we eventually made a fire for roasting marshmellows. The kids all wanted to play Monster so I chased them around for a while. Perry got into the action and Charlotte gave him the name “Tickle Tock”. She kept taunting him until he’d chase them. Diego was a good runner; Amorita said he can run a two-mile trail which is crazy at two and a half. They stayed until after dark and we made plans to meet again tomorrow.