Gila National Forest

At 3.3 million acres, the Gila National Forest in southwestern New Mexico encompasses some of the most remote and wild terrain remaining in the lower 48 states. Its centerpiece is the Gila Wilderness, designated in 1924 at the urging of conservationist Aldo Leopold as the world's first officially designated wilderness area, establishing a precedent that would lead to the Wilderness Act of 1964. The forest's rugged landscape spans from high desert grasslands at 4,500 feet to subalpine meadows atop Whitewater Baldy at 10,895 feet.\n\nThe Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument preserves 700-year-old Mogollon puebloan ruins built into natural alcoves along the West Fork of the Gila River. The forest contains three major wilderness areas totaling over 790,000 acres, providing critical habitat for Mexican gray wolves, Gila trout, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Natural hot springs scattered throughout the backcountry reward intrepid hikers.\n\nThe Gila River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the American Southwest, originates within the forest and supports a riparian corridor of extraordinary ecological significance. The forest's vast network of over 1,500 miles of trails traverses volcanic mesas, deep box canyons, and ponderosa pine forests that feel utterly unchanged from centuries past.