Round Trip Distance: 0.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6897 - 7066 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: Puye Cliff Dwellings
Fee: Adults - $40, Senior/Children - $36
Attractions: cliff dwellings, pueblo, petroglyphs
The Puye Cliff Dwellings is a National Historic Landmark that is located near Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Ruins of a very large pueblo sit on the edge of the mesa at the site while along the cliffs below are numerous cavettes that were dug into the soft volcanic tuff as well as multi-storied rooms that were built up against the cliff. Between the 900s and late 1,400s the site was home to 1,500 Tewa speaking Pueblo Indians.
For turn-by-turn directions enter Puye Cliff Dwellings into your driving app. All but the last few hundred feet of the road is paved and easily accessible by normal highway vehicles.
Without going on the tour all you will see is a distant view of the ruins along the front of the cliffs. While the view is distant it is still a nice view. The tours leave every so often from the Visitor Center and require no advanced reservations.
The tour starts by everyone hopping into a van which drives up to the ruins on top of the mesa. Here the guide begins by telling many interesting stories from the history of Puye and the Tewa People. Our Native guide made the cost of the tour well worthwhile with the stories that he related.
The checkerboard of rooms of the massive pueblo were all built around a large central plaza.
Many of the rooms were multi-storied. This structure was reconstructed to serve as an example for visitors.
People are welcomed to explore the insides.
Those that wish can follow their guide down to the next level of ruins. Others can request to be conveyed back to the Visitor Center in the van.
This is the interior of one of the caves in the upper level of the cliff.
The next lower level is reached by descending a tall, sturdy, well built ladder that is anchored to the cliff and held by a concrete slab at its base.
On this level are many more caves. Most of these caves had rooms built in front of them. The holes in the cliff were dug out to hold one end of the logs that were used in the ceilings. Where there are multiple rows of these holes it is easy to judge how many stories high the rooms reached.
This is how the entire face of the cliff would have appeared back in the day when the site was inhabited.
High up on the cliff are a few interesting petroglyphs.
Our guide mentioned that the site was abandoned when the spring where they got their water dried up. At that time the people moved into the area that is now Santa Clara Pueblo. While on the mesa our guide also pointed out a couple of other similar sites as this that are found across the valley just north of this site. Those sites are closed to visitors. Our guide also told us stories of the Pueblo Revolt, an excursion to the aid of the Hopi People, and several other things of interest. He was a marvelous story teller.
If you would like to see the Puye Cliff Dwellings for yourself all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
If you would like to see the Puye Cliff Dwellings for yourself all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
