Wild Places...

 

“Like wind and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.  Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” – Aldo Leopold

Pools in the canyon on Little Dry Creek Trail

Two years ago when we first started our travels we had plans to visit the Gila Wilderness.  But 2012 was a big fire season and the Whitewater Baldy Fire was raging in the Gila National Forest and Wilderness.  When it was finally contained late in June of 2012 about 300,000 acres had burned making it the most extensive fire in New Mexico history.  300,000 acres is a lot of forest to burn but fortunately the Gila National Forest is almost 3.3 million acres with one-fourth of it designated as wilderness.

We had never done any hiking in the Gila so this year we wanted to visit and see how it was recovering nearly two years after this devastating fire.  The Gila has long held a fascination for us partly because of its size and remoteness but also because one of our heroes, conservationist and pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold, was instrumental in the designation of the Gila as the country’s very first wilderness area.  Maybe some of you have heard of Aldo Leopold and know his book, A Sand County Almanac.  It is a must read if you treasure nature.

View of the Gila Wilderness, our country's first wilderness, from the Aldo Leopold Vista

In 1909 after Leopold graduated from the Yale School of Forestry, he accepted a job with the newly formed Forest Service at the Southwestern Regional Office in New Mexico.  I like to picture Aldo Leopold as a wide-eyed young man who had never been out of the east, stepping off the train in Albuquerque into a wild west – a rugged and remote land that would shape him and forever change his life.   Over the next several years influenced by his experiences in the Gila, a new perspective on wildlife management would be born and Leopold would soon discover a passion for ‘wilderness as a resource.’ 

Headed into the wilderness, no roads in site...

Leopold believed that people need the solitude of wild places and he defined wilderness as enough undeveloped land that a person could ride horseback for two weeks and see no roads or houses or other signs of civilization.  Leopold’s vision helped inspire the 1964 Wilderness Act that now preserves the wildness of over 109 million acres of federal public lands.   David and I are doing our best to spend some time walking and camping in as many of those wild places as we possibly can. 

Little Bear Canyon

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.  When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold  

From Silver City, the Trail of the Mountain Spirits National Scenic Byway winds its way from the high Chihuahuan desert through narrow canyons to the snow-touched wilderness and headwaters of the Gila River.  After driving this beautiful byway we camped just a few miles from the Gila Cliff Dwellings on the edge of the national forest.  The next few days we took hikes into the wilderness along the middle and west forks of the Gila River and visited the cliff dwellings. 

Maya in the Middle Fork of the Gila River

 

Some of the trails into the wilderness were in very bad shape.  First there was the fire two years ago and then this past September there was a big flood.  Many of the burned trees were uprooted and washed into the Gila River.  We talked to one group of hikers that said they just gave up at one point and hiked down the middle of the river, it was easier than trying to follow the trail blocked with downed trees.  The Gila is pretty deep and swift in places and we didn’t think we were prepared for immersion in cold water most of the day so we avoided those trails.  (Maya probably wouldn’t have minded it, but we aren’t as tough as she is.)

Burned area along the West Fork of the Gila River

Our hikes, while definitely not as adventurous, were still a lot of fun.  We took the higher and drier trails through smaller canyons but still hiked down to the rivers.  David and Maya came within inches of a beautiful (and large) Blacktail Rattlesnake.  Lucky for us these snakes are generally docile and this one was still sluggish and cold - he didn't even rattle at us.  But that was exciting enough for us. 


Sluggish Blacktail Rattlesnake
 

And here's the black tail in the lower right corner

One of the burned areas

We did pass through some of the forest that was burned, but it was more of a mosaic of burned and unburned forest.  The wild flowers were putting on quite the show, probably benefiting from the extra light reaching the forest floor after the burn.  On our hike closer to the cliff dwellings we saw several sets of hikers and backpackers but on our hike through Little Dry Creek Canyon it was just us, the pool-filled canyon and the solitude of the wilderness. 



Columbine



Soaking tired feet in a cool mountain stream is wonderful!

 

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked    3

Total Miles Hiked   17.17

Ave. Miles per Day      5.72
Total Elevation Gain       2,574
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   858