The GILA NATIONAL FOREST is one of the nation's largest (approximately 3.3 million acres, nearly one-fourth of which is set aside as designated wilderness) and most scenic year-round recreation and natural areas. It contains more federal land than any other national forest outside Alaska, providing a diverse, accessible landscape offering wide-ranging recreational experiences including hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, hunting, almost 500 miles worth of fishing streams, camping, backpacking, rock climbing, and jeeping.

Twenty campgrounds are available in the national forest; seven with drinking water and toilets. With few exceptions, visitors can roam the woods at will, wrapped in a cloak of peace and quiet.

Abundant wildlife includes elk, deer, antelope, black bear, mountain lion, big horn sheep, javelina, wild turkey, hawks (including red-tailed hawks), eagles (including bald eagles), cranes, and songbirds. Some species occur nowhere else in New Mexico. A comprehensive pamphlet titled "Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles and Mammals... A Species Checklist for the Gila National Forest" is available at the Ranger Station in Truth or Consequences. 30 fish species, 11 amphibians, 44 reptiles and 81 mammals are identified. Another pamphlet titled "Birds of the Gila National Forest" is also available, listing 166 species known to breed in the Gila, 114 others that are more or less regular non-breeders, and 57 species considered to be casual (recorded 3-5 times) or accidental (recorded but once or twice). Altogether, there are 453 species of vertebrates to be found in the Gila, including 35 sensitive, threatened, or endangered species.

This topographically rugged area, with elevations ranging from 4,200 to 10,900 feet that cover four distinct life zones, was part of the traditional hunting and gathering land for the Warm Springs Apache, but - as will become evident during your travels - created an impressive barrier to early American settlement. The area includes the convergence of the southern Rocky and northern Sierra Madre mountain systems, covered with forests of spruce, fir, ponderosa, aspen, juniper and pinon. Lower elevations witness an overlap of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert ecosystems supporting ocatilla and other cacti.

Note that the legislated wilderness areas within the Gila National Forest - the Gila Wilderness and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness - are restricted to foot or horseback travel. The 1964 Wilderness Act states that a wilderness is "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

This undeveloped natural country can refresh the human spirit simply by its grandeur, purity, and remoteness. An extensive system of trails offers pleasant hikes through cool forested mountains or along shady streams. Backpackers will find plenty of beautiful, wild, rugged, and remote country for long trips in quiet solitude. Day hikers will find good trails and many opportunities for pleasant explorations and wildlife viewing.

The Gila Wilderness encompasses 558,065 acres: the first wilderness designated by act of Congress (1924), and still the largest. The Aldo Leopold Wilderness is another vast wilderness (202,016 acres) along the Continental Divide, named for the early naturalist who encouraged preservation of wildlands.

Of the many wilderness trails, the most popular are in the Gila Wilderness between the Middle Fork of the Gila River and the southwestern rim of the Mogollon Mountain Range. Since this area contains more water and high mountains than other parts of the forest, visitor use is heavier. There are, however, many trails throughout the forest that are as wild and lonesome in character as those in designated wilderness.

What's on the web about the Gila National Forest?

(These will take you to our Links page.)

Next stop on the E-Tour:
a side trip to City of Rocks State Park...