For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water, wood, and food to their homes was a major chore.

For protection from the summer sun, the Mojave lived in open-sided, flat-topped dwellings known as shades, each a roof of poles and arrow weed supported by posts set in a rectangle.

You can take in the picturesque canal house architecture: The rows of neat, narrow four-story dwellings of brownstone with large windows are well worth seeing.