Gila National Forest, National forest in southwestern New Mexico, US
The Gila National Forest is a vast forest area in southwestern New Mexico covering diverse landscapes and terrain. It stretches from desert regions to mountain peaks above 10,000 feet, carved by rivers and dotted with canyons and woodland.
The area was home to the Mogollon people, who built cliff dwellings here until the 13th century. The forest was established as a protected area in 1905 to safeguard these lands.
The forest's name comes from the Gila River, which flows year-round through parts of the forest. The Gila monster, Gila trout, Gila topminnow and Gila woodpecker all take the same name. Visitors can look for the Gila trout in the streams and the woodpecker in the pine woodland.
The forest holds 139 developed recreation sites: 30 campgrounds, seven picnic areas, eight points of interest and 94 trailheads, plus dispersed camping along 3,300 miles of designated roads and 1,600 miles of non-motorized trails. The 3.5-acre Cosmic Campground, named North America's first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in 2016, suits star-gazing. In the Gila Wilderness, hikers are advised to store food away from their sleeping spot to avoid attracting black bears and cougars.
The Gila Wilderness was designated on June 3, 1924, forty years before the Wilderness Act created a national policy of wilderness preservation. It began with 755,000 acres at the core of the forest. In the 1950s the Forest Service improved Forest Road 150, the North Star Road, cutting across the wilderness and producing today's Gila and Aldo Leopold boundaries.
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