The Puye Cliff Dwellings (a place between earth and sky) are the ruins of an abandoned pueblo, located in Santa Clara Canyon on Santa Clara Pueblo land near Espaola, New Mexico. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Puye Ruins.

The Puye Cliffs complex, the largest complex on the Pajarito Plateau, includes two levels of cliff-dwellings. One level of cliff dwellings is over 1 mile long and the second is about 2,100 feet long. There are several ways of touring the cliff dwellings, including taking a gentle jeep ride to the top and down again, which the two RV Gypsies did not do.

Below: Lee Duquette and Judith, the Native American tour guide. All the guides are tribe members. Judith's knowledge of the dwellings was phenomenal and shared with an obvious pride in her native heritage. Although the trail goes up several levels, most of it was a flat, easy trail with frequent stops to hear the history of the dwellings.

The dwellings were carved out of soft volcanic tuff on about a 200 foot cliff ridge. The rock is relatively soft and can be excavated using wooden tools. The cliff dwellings held about 740 rooms, and ruins at the base of the cliff likely held additional dwellings. On top of the mesa are cave dwellings of the Pueblo II Era around which a multi-storied puebloan village was built. The south portion of the complex had 173 rooms on the ground floor.

Below: The two RV Gypsies finished off the tour by climbing down the ladder. Lee Duquette went down backwards.

About 1580 drought finally forced the villagers to leave for locations nearer to the Rio Grande valley. Present day inhabitants of Santa Clara Pueblo, some 10 miles to the east, are descendants of the Puye. The American Indians living in pueblo in northern New Mexico traditionally speak the Tewa language. The Tewa name 'Puye' can be translated as 'pueblo ruin where the rabbits assemble or meet'.