A forbidding wilderness in New Mexico
The Gila Wilderness is 'remote and resistant to entry' but some may wish to explore
It is 100 years since the US government created the world's first protected wilderness, at the prompting of a visionary conservationist, Aldo Leopold. Encompassing some 1,190 square miles of forested mountains and desert canyons in southern New Mexico, the Gila Wilderness is not a visitor-friendly national park, said Elaine Glusac in The New York Times, but a forbidding natural region, remote and resistant to entry.
Indeed, few places in the US are so well guarded against the selfie-seeking crowds. There are no roads or "artificial trails" – an absence that has led to "countless tales of lost hikers, encounters with poison oak and arduous river crossings". And the wilderness itself lies within a larger conservation area, the 5,196 square mile Gila National Forest, where the only roads are steep and winding, making access yet more difficult.
I stayed in Silver City, on the edge of the National Forest, which makes a good base for exploring. From there, it's a 90-minute drive to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. A complex of 40 rooms built into caves high up on some "amber-hued" cliffs, it was created by a group of hunter-gatherers, the Mogollon people, in the 13th century. Today, it is the area's "top attraction", along with the many pictographs they drew on a nearby rock wall – abstract figures and symbols whose meaning is "lost to time". The cliff dwellings stand at a good entry point into the wilderness – if you can ford the Gila River. On my visit, it was in spate, and I gave up.
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The next day, however, I entered the wilderness at Rocky Canyon, on horseback, in the company of two Forest Service employees. Exploring for eight hours, we passed through a remarkable range of habitats – from desert to alpine – and saw "intriguing" caves, sculptural stacks of boulders, and backcountry hot springs. And while none of the area's bears, wolves or mountain lions put in an appearance, I spotted many "smaller wonders", including Montezuma quail, with their "distinct polka-dot breasts".
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