Six hour drive and 270 miles from Ruidoso to the Gila visitor center at the end of Rt15. I went in via Rt152 that goes over the Black Range from east to west in my case and returned via Silver City and Rt10 and Las Cruces. I crossed the continental divide at 7,000 just east of Lake Roberts. There are numerous lodgings as well as campgrounds at Lake Roberts. I stopped and ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant there that also has lodging. From Lake Roberts it’s another forty five minutes to the Cliff dwellings and visitor center. I came up the Mimbres valley but most come in from Silver City - coming in from Silver City it is a two hour drive due to the convolutions of the road. When one looks at the map, it does not look that far and it is hard to believe that this drive would take two hours but it truly does, and such should be the first hint of just how vast this wilderness area really is. A flood in February blocked access to the west fork of the Gila river due to work on the bridge to the trailhead which is at the Gila Cliff Dwelling parking area so I went up the middle fork of the Gila, the trailhead just behind the visitor center which has toilets with a sink, water and various trinkets as well as maps but no food.
No permits are required
I was used to the east coast my whole life and had only backpacked out west a handful of times, mostly in Colorado and Northern California. From the 8,000 foot perch, I could see nothing but wilderness in every direction literally from horizon to horizon and my mind really could not quite comprehend the vastness of this wilderness. Just the drive in is outstanding and before dropping down off of a 8,000 foot ridge into the Gila facilities and a tiny outpost of civilization with a hot springs and lodging, you get a panoramic view that is awe inspiring. At 8,000 feet there was a mature ponderosa pine forest. I’m accustomed to 10,000 acre wilderness not 1,000,000 acre wilderness. I really had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.
I would never see much of this place, I thought in awe.
.
This paved Rt15 allows the deepest ingress into this 3 million acre forest and 1 million acre Gila wilderness.
I got a topo map at the visitor center and left the trailhead about 2:30pm. Just the trailhead itself affords outstanding views of the middle fork and surrounding cliffs. There is a natural hot springs about a mile in. It trickles into the middle fork from about a 3 inch spring that comes out right at the trail - in fact you have to step over it. It is after the second crossing and just before a sign designating entrance into the wilderness area. There are some good camp sites on the left along the river just past the spring. I actually missed the spring going in because I was banging around on the other side of the river looking for a camp site and then I crossed back over just above the spring. I continued up past here where these camp sites were taken looking for a nice place to camp - an ambitious backpacker I am not! There were quit a few cars at the trailhead and most all of these were people visiting this hot spring. I found a place to camp and set up my tent then I thought that since my boots were already soaked that I’d continue up the trail across the next creek crossing and make sure there wasn’t a better camp site nearby. It was only three thirty, after all. Sure enough, just across the next creek crossing there was a fantastic campsite under enormous trees. This would be at the fifth crossing of the Gila from the trailhead. So I went back and moved everything up to this site, including my already set up tent. The winds threatened to lift me off the ground holding the light but cumbersome tent above my head as I crossed the Gila, thigh deep here. This camp site was beautiful with the middle fork right there and precious shade as well as an open meadow next to it and views of cliffs that ran in a long line along the west and the east.
Anyone coming here should be prepared to cross the river about every five to fifteen minutes of walking. Most of the crossing were about knee high up to almost waist high and the water was down at this point. If this area did actually get winter snows and the water were up it would be virtually impassable - something to think about if someone were planning a trip here in the spring. This is true of all the trails in this area that follow the branches of the Gila. The leaves were just starting to bud and temperatures went down to about 32 degrees at night and up into the 80’s in the day. The bright New Mexico sun on the still cool earth of Spring generated winds starting like clockwork about 8:30 am and ending around dusk - the “spring winds”.
I had never been in an environment like this and found it refreshingly novel. Looking up at the cliffs hundreds of feet above the river, the silhouettes of pinion trees against the bright, electric blue New Mexico sky struck me as so … western. Like a TV Cowboy western movie clip playing in my mind. After the first day I only saw eight backpackers all week and one day I saw six people on horseback doing an all day out and back, passing my camp late in the day heading back, a couple people looking like they could barely still stay in their saddles. A guided horseback trip, especially a multiple day camping trip, would be a great way to see more of this vast territory, I thought.
I think the ideal time to backpack here in the Spring would be about the middle of May. There is almost constant sun under the electric blue New Mexico sky and the environment is similar to the high desert. As an easterner, I marveled at a few cactus I passed. Waiting for the deciduous trees to leaf out would provide some welcome shade. Following along the river was like following a thin, sinuous oasis through the high desert. At the elevation here, about 6,000 ft, when you leave the river you immediately enter a dry, almost scrub environment. As far as I went in, nice camp sites were fairly few and far between but when the birch and other deciduous trees leaf out, the number of nice, shaded camp sites would increase. Even this early in the year the full force of the afternoon sun is daunting. A hat and sun screen is a must, I would think. At this time of year you live under the bright, friendly auspices of the sun as it shines from an electric blue sky almost all the time. Whenever I hiked I just kept dipping my bandana into the river at the numerous crossings and putting it back under my hat. In the afternoon sun the bandana would dry out in fifteen or twenty minutes.
I watched the middle for of the Gila drop for six days about five inches. I would have to shuffle a few inches closer in my booties in the cold morning to fetch some water for coffee.
After five nights on the sixth day walking back out early in the morning with the temperature in the high thirties, the hot spring was hard to miss. Steam rising from the spring itself into the cold air and from the small, shallow pool that the spring empties into. There are beautiful views from the spring and on this morning elk were grassing along the river there. This spring is a great spot for the slightly adventurous being only a thirty minute walk or so from the trailhead. I saw people without packs walking in wearing sandals, towels thrown over their shoulders. At one point earlier in the week I had passed a couple backpacking wearing only sandals. While I have to admit that my boots became extremely heavy every day after only a couple river crossings, I think this is a spectacularly bad idea. If one were just day hiking without a heavy pack, sandals would be cool - personally, in such conditions, I would prefer an old pair of running shoes - at least that much support. I’ve dealt with broken bones in the wilderness, fortunately not my own. I had a difficult time at several crossings due to the rocky bottoms that are plenty deep enough to be invisible even in the relatively clear water of the Gila. A broken ankle or leg or arm or shoulder out in the wilderness is not only a bummer, it‘s a huge hassle being that far away from medical attention. And the crossings are so numerous that it is impractical to take off boots and don tennis shoes at each creek crossing, unless one has a real thing about getting their boots soaking wet as well as a great deal of patience.
No permits are required
I was used to the east coast my whole life and had only backpacked out west a handful of times, mostly in Colorado and Northern California. From the 8,000 foot perch, I could see nothing but wilderness in every direction literally from horizon to horizon and my mind really could not quite comprehend the vastness of this wilderness. Just the drive in is outstanding and before dropping down off of a 8,000 foot ridge into the Gila facilities and a tiny outpost of civilization with a hot springs and lodging, you get a panoramic view that is awe inspiring. At 8,000 feet there was a mature ponderosa pine forest. I’m accustomed to 10,000 acre wilderness not 1,000,000 acre wilderness. I really had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.
I would never see much of this place, I thought in awe.
.
This paved Rt15 allows the deepest ingress into this 3 million acre forest and 1 million acre Gila wilderness.
I got a topo map at the visitor center and left the trailhead about 2:30pm. Just the trailhead itself affords outstanding views of the middle fork and surrounding cliffs. There is a natural hot springs about a mile in. It trickles into the middle fork from about a 3 inch spring that comes out right at the trail - in fact you have to step over it. It is after the second crossing and just before a sign designating entrance into the wilderness area. There are some good camp sites on the left along the river just past the spring. I actually missed the spring going in because I was banging around on the other side of the river looking for a camp site and then I crossed back over just above the spring. I continued up past here where these camp sites were taken looking for a nice place to camp - an ambitious backpacker I am not! There were quit a few cars at the trailhead and most all of these were people visiting this hot spring. I found a place to camp and set up my tent then I thought that since my boots were already soaked that I’d continue up the trail across the next creek crossing and make sure there wasn’t a better camp site nearby. It was only three thirty, after all. Sure enough, just across the next creek crossing there was a fantastic campsite under enormous trees. This would be at the fifth crossing of the Gila from the trailhead. So I went back and moved everything up to this site, including my already set up tent. The winds threatened to lift me off the ground holding the light but cumbersome tent above my head as I crossed the Gila, thigh deep here. This camp site was beautiful with the middle fork right there and precious shade as well as an open meadow next to it and views of cliffs that ran in a long line along the west and the east.
Anyone coming here should be prepared to cross the river about every five to fifteen minutes of walking. Most of the crossing were about knee high up to almost waist high and the water was down at this point. If this area did actually get winter snows and the water were up it would be virtually impassable - something to think about if someone were planning a trip here in the spring. This is true of all the trails in this area that follow the branches of the Gila. The leaves were just starting to bud and temperatures went down to about 32 degrees at night and up into the 80’s in the day. The bright New Mexico sun on the still cool earth of Spring generated winds starting like clockwork about 8:30 am and ending around dusk - the “spring winds”.
I had never been in an environment like this and found it refreshingly novel. Looking up at the cliffs hundreds of feet above the river, the silhouettes of pinion trees against the bright, electric blue New Mexico sky struck me as so … western. Like a TV Cowboy western movie clip playing in my mind. After the first day I only saw eight backpackers all week and one day I saw six people on horseback doing an all day out and back, passing my camp late in the day heading back, a couple people looking like they could barely still stay in their saddles. A guided horseback trip, especially a multiple day camping trip, would be a great way to see more of this vast territory, I thought.
I think the ideal time to backpack here in the Spring would be about the middle of May. There is almost constant sun under the electric blue New Mexico sky and the environment is similar to the high desert. As an easterner, I marveled at a few cactus I passed. Waiting for the deciduous trees to leaf out would provide some welcome shade. Following along the river was like following a thin, sinuous oasis through the high desert. At the elevation here, about 6,000 ft, when you leave the river you immediately enter a dry, almost scrub environment. As far as I went in, nice camp sites were fairly few and far between but when the birch and other deciduous trees leaf out, the number of nice, shaded camp sites would increase. Even this early in the year the full force of the afternoon sun is daunting. A hat and sun screen is a must, I would think. At this time of year you live under the bright, friendly auspices of the sun as it shines from an electric blue sky almost all the time. Whenever I hiked I just kept dipping my bandana into the river at the numerous crossings and putting it back under my hat. In the afternoon sun the bandana would dry out in fifteen or twenty minutes.
I watched the middle for of the Gila drop for six days about five inches. I would have to shuffle a few inches closer in my booties in the cold morning to fetch some water for coffee.
After five nights on the sixth day walking back out early in the morning with the temperature in the high thirties, the hot spring was hard to miss. Steam rising from the spring itself into the cold air and from the small, shallow pool that the spring empties into. There are beautiful views from the spring and on this morning elk were grassing along the river there. This spring is a great spot for the slightly adventurous being only a thirty minute walk or so from the trailhead. I saw people without packs walking in wearing sandals, towels thrown over their shoulders. At one point earlier in the week I had passed a couple backpacking wearing only sandals. While I have to admit that my boots became extremely heavy every day after only a couple river crossings, I think this is a spectacularly bad idea. If one were just day hiking without a heavy pack, sandals would be cool - personally, in such conditions, I would prefer an old pair of running shoes - at least that much support. I’ve dealt with broken bones in the wilderness, fortunately not my own. I had a difficult time at several crossings due to the rocky bottoms that are plenty deep enough to be invisible even in the relatively clear water of the Gila. A broken ankle or leg or arm or shoulder out in the wilderness is not only a bummer, it‘s a huge hassle being that far away from medical attention. And the crossings are so numerous that it is impractical to take off boots and don tennis shoes at each creek crossing, unless one has a real thing about getting their boots soaking wet as well as a great deal of patience.
posted by:
|
New Mexico
|
