Murray Ryan Visitor Center

201 North Hudson Street

Silver City, NM 88061

575-538-5555

​The drive from Silver City to the Catwalk is a scenic trip roughly 66 miles away along the foothills of the Mogollon Mountains.

The “city” is a geologic formation made up of large, sculptured rock columns, or pinnacles, rising as high as 40 feet and separated by paths or lanes resembling city streets. These rocks were formed about 34.9 million years ago when a very large volcano erupted. Then, erosion over millions of years slowly formed the sculptured columns seen today, creating a stunning, otherworldly landscape.

For thousands of years, groups of nomads 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.

Only 8.5 miles away. Fort Bayard was established in 1866 to protect miners and other settlers in the area along the Apache Trail.

Founded in 1991 in the southern Rocky Mountains that overlook Silver City, New Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery is the home of a young community of Benedictine monks.