Starting October 1, reservations open for guided tours along the Upper Cliff Dwellings at Tonto National Monument. Reservations sell out within weeks.
“They will fill up within two weeks, if not sooner,” says Greg Walcott, Tonto National Monument superintendent. “People will start calling as soon as we open the books to start putting reservations in.”
Overlooking the expanse of Roosevelt Lake, the Upper Cliff Dwellings are one of two accessible cliff dwellings at the monument. They are considered some of the best-preserved cave dwellings in the Southwest, constructed with mud, rocks, and wood, built and occupied roughly 700 years ago by the prehistoric Salado people.
The Upper Cliff Dwellings are only accessible via a limited number of guided tours offered on Saturdays and Sundays from November through April each year.
If you want to make a reservation for a tour of the Upper Dwellings, “you’ve got to do it quickly,” Walcott says.
Entrenched in the Sonoran Desert among hills scattered with saguaros, cholla, prickly pear, ocotillo, and palo verde, Tonto National Monument is the closest national monument to Globe-Miami.
The monument and its dwellings are a place that Walcott says just about anyone ought to visit, whether one is looking for views, wildlife or history.
He estimates the cliff dwellings at the monument receive 30,000 to 35,000 visitors a year. Some are local, some are snowbirds, and many are from around the world.
“We see, every week, somebody from a different country,” Walcott notes.
The other dwellings at the monument, known as the Lower Cliff Dwellings, are accessible to the public via self-guided tours year-round.
Whether hiking to the Upper or Lower Dwellings, once visitors hike up to the ruins, they are free to walk inside and imagine life as the Salado experienced it.
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