On a clear spring morning, I trusted a horse—a bay named Sino—to show me the vast Gila Wilderness in southern New Mexico. Red rocks rose up beside us as we weaved back and forth in a shallow creek that separated the ponderosa pine on the shady south side of Rocky Canyon from the barrel cactus in the rock crevices on the desert-like north face. I leaned into his neck as Shino climbed a steep ridge that led to a hilltop savanna of pinyons, junipers, and forests of tentacle cactus chola sugar cane with sharp yellow fruit. Around them, the wooded mountains were unsullied by buildings or roads.
One hundred years after being designated the nation’s first Wilderness Area in 1924, the remote Gila Wilderness appears to be fulfilling the vision of its founder, conservationist Aldo Leopold.
“By ‘wilderness,'” Leopold wrote, “I mean a continuous tract of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, large enough to absorb a journey of two weeks, and having no roads, no artificial paths. , cottages or other works of man”.
Henry Provencio is a former ranger who, until his recent retirement, managed much of the Gila Wilderness, where pine-clad mountains hide countless canyons and habitat for wolves, bears and mountain lions. “Here, man is only a visitor,” he said. “There are now 48 countries in the world with some form of wilderness designation and it all started right here.”
As I discovered over the course of five days, visiting the Gila—pronounced HEE-la—is both inspiring and challenging. The wilderness prohibits conveniences such as cars and bridges, limiting most travel to hikers and horseback riders. Nearby roads are slow, making a remote destination more remote. But it’s all by design.
“People have to want to come here.”
The rapid pace of development—linked to the boom in road construction with the advent of the automobile—already occupied Leopold when he came to southern New Mexico in the early 1900s as forest service supervisor. Among his duties was to shoot predators such as wolves to protect their prey for hunters.
“He realized that killing all the predators was causing huge problems in the natural balance of things,” said Steve Morgan, a retired landscape architect who plays Aldo Leopold in lectures across the United States. “He talked about setting the earth aside as an earth laboratory so we could study it.”
In June 1924, the Forest Service acted on his proposal, designating hundreds of thousands of acres as the Gila Wilderness. Over the years, the boundaries have shifted and now two adjacent wilderness areas roughly cover its original footprint. The larger, nearly 560,000-acre Gila Wilderness retained the original name alongside the neighboring 202,000-acre Aldo Leopold Wilderness. Both are surrounded by the Gila National Forest, a 3.3 million-acre reserve that is less restrictive in terms of access, which includes a car permit.
The mountainous area can be difficult to navigate. I organized my visit with day trips from two towns bordering the national forest: tiny Kingston, NM, about 190 miles southwest of Albuquerque; and Silver City, 45 miles west of Kingston, on a highway so steep and winding that many trucks must make a 110-mile detour.
“People have to want to come here,” said Maribeth Pecotte, public relations officer for the Forest Service, which manages both the Gila National Forest and the Gila Wilderness. “You don’t meet it.”
Dwellings on cliffs and hot springs
The top attraction of the Gila region—the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument—is a good place to start exploring. From Silver City, the cliff dwellings are a 90-minute drive north on the curvy Highway 15, which cuts through the National Forest.
Beginning around 1276, hunter-gatherers known as the Mogollon people built a series of 40 cave rooms among amber-hued rock cliffs known as the Gila Complex.
“To me, it’s our church,” said Ronnie Cachini of the Pueblo of Zuni, one of the Pueblo cultures believed to be descended from the Mogollon and related people, in a video played in the monument’s visitor center.
I walked the steep path of nearly 300 steps to reach the lodges in time for a tour with a ranger, who described how a drought had likely drawn the Mogollon to the cliffs above a spring-fed creek. Nearby, at Lower Scorpion Campground, a collection of pictographs filled a rock wall with abstract figures and symbols, their meanings lost in time.
From the monument, a series of trails lead out into the Gila Wilderness, leading to slot canyons and hot springs. But circumstances, including the prospect of crossing the rapid Gila River in the spring, kept me in the first country.
There, just south of the cliff dwellings, I noticed the signs around the rustic pools at Gila Hot Springs Campground to “soak and exhale” amid views of towering riverside cliffs.
Hiking in the buffer zone
After weeks of reporting, I had heard countless stories of lost hikers, poison oak encounters, and arduous river crossings. The road to the Catwalk Recreation Area, which offers relatively convenient access to the wildlands just beyond, was under construction. The wilderness, it seemed, resisted entry.
That evening, colleagues at Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery in Silver City confirmed my theory and suggested hikes in the nearby Gila National Forest for wildlife views, drawing maps to get me there.
The next morning, as the sun shone through frozen tall grass near the trailhead a few miles north of Silver City, I set out for the roughly 7,200-foot Gomez Peak in the company of indiscreet Mexican jays and nervous spots in tow. Well-marked trails network the area around the base, leading to a nearly mile-long climb to the top of the mountain, where pines have given way to sculptural agave plants, some with flowering stems 30 feet tall. Northern views frame the Gila Wilderness, including the snow-capped ridge of the Mogollon Mountains rising over 10,000 feet.
Later that afternoon, the staff at Gila Hike & Bike, a Silver City store that sells hiking maps, suggested a few trails from Highway 15 in the national forest, including Tadpole Ridge.
A 20-minute climb to the ridge revealed uninterrupted views of the forest, reminding me of some advice Mr. Morgan, the Aldo Leopold expert, had given: “Places don’t need to be described as wild to still get the essence of what they are.” . “
Exploring on horseback
On my last day, I joined two Forest Service employees on an exploratory walk into the Gila Wilderness in Rocky Canyon.
As wildland managers, the Forest Service relies on a stable of horses and mules run by the department’s chief ranger, Zackary Law, to supply seasonally staffed fire towers and haulage trail maintenance crews. Mr. Lo saddled Sino as he introduced me to Eileen Henry, a fish biologist and experienced horse rider who works with Mr. Lo to carry camping gear and scientific instruments across the wilderness when he needs to test the genetics of isolated Gila trout populations.
Driving down a forest trail into the desert, we immediately flushed two coyotes. Mr Lo spotted mountain lion tracks in sandy washes, wolves on the trail and a pine tree stripped of its bark by bears looking for acorns hidden there by woodpeckers.
Traversing climates from alpine to desert, we encountered fascinating caves and naturally stacked boulders that looked ready to fall and would surely be social media selfie magnets if they were more accessible.
“That’s the way a lot of the Gila is, you go up into the desert and down into the river bottoms and the thick pine forests,” said Mr. Law, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the Gila’s flora and fauna has been honed by hiking more than 1,000 miles in the saddle every year.
Among the smaller wonders, we spotted a pair of foraging Montezuma quail with a distinct spotted breast tangled in the jawbone and briefly captured a charismatic horned toad—a type of lizard—during the 10-mile, nearly eight-hour trek.
On my way back to Silver City, I stopped at Open Space Brewing, a new brewery that has a following among outdoor enthusiasts. At the bar, I shared the effort and excitement of reaching the desert with Molly Gibson, 31, a local teacher and avid hiker.
“That’s what makes it good,” he smiled. “It’s hard to get to.”
If you go
The main gateway to the Gila Wilderness, Silver City has several hotels, including the downtown Murray Hotel, which traces its history to 1938 (from $129, including breakfast). About 10 minutes north, the luxurious Bear Mountain Lodge offers hiking trails on its 178-acre property next to the national forest (from $180, including breakfast).
Near Gila Cliff Lodges, Gila Hot Springs Campground has camping for $12 per person, per night, including access to the springs. Day use of the springs for non-guests costs $8. Wolfhorse Outfitters offers horseback riding and national forest tours (from $100).
Southeast of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, the nine-room Black Range Lodge originally housed miners in the 1880s and now offers music retreats and stargazing parties (rooms from $120, including breakfast).
Elaine Glusac is the Frugal Traveler columnist, focusing on budget-friendly travel and tips.
