Starting out at Rogers Trough TH, we headed down 1100 feet in elevation; 4.1 miles to the Salado Indian Cliff Dwelling. What an amazing place! I studied the inside of the cave and dwellings for some time. You could tell how the still-covered dwelling was the sleeping shelter, created so that a fire could be built in the center so that the inhabitants could be warm. There are smoke stains all along to underside of the dwelling's roof.
While all of the carvings of people's names on the inside of the dwelling makes me angry, I did see some names and dates from the early 1900's. I didn't see any from the 1800's.
After a PB&J sandwich and several pictures, we hiked back towards Rogers Trough TH, but we made a quick detour to see Elisha Reavis' grave. This was very exciting to us because both my uncle and I own Jack Carlson's Hiking the Superstitions book with Reavis on the cover.
It was a great day, with great company, and the views were amazing. I had never been on a 'real' 4X4 road before. It was awesome!