We returned with our hiking group, the Gila Hikers to a remarkable area of slot canyons and crenelated cliffs not far from Silver City.
I've been obsessed with Twin Sisters ever since moving to Silver City. I never thought I'd hike to the top. I certainly never thought I'd do it three times! But with a hardy crew from Gila Hikers, the miles passed quickly, and we made it easily to the summit.
Chasing an an eclipse wasn't in the cards for us this year, but we still wanted to mark the occasion in some way. So we set out to hike a streamside trail on the west side of the Mogollon Mountains.
Jamie, our "chosen daughter", paid us a visit with her daughter CC, a bright and beautiful young lady with a personality as big as the great outdoors!
Finally our schedules aligned, a window opened, and we returned to the Lower Gila Box with friends Val, J and Ken, for four days of camping and hiking. Or so we thought!
Four whole days in the Lower Gila Box, with no real itinerary. Total freedom to just go wherever our feet could carry us!
Of all the days to forget our water shoes! This streamside hike gave us thrilling views and lots of opportunities to soak our boots!
In the mid 1980s, Vermont friends injected a little levity into a local cross-country ski race that had become a bit too competitive.
On what felt like the first day of spring, we returned to Skates Canyon with the Gila Hikers.
At the last minute, a major storm swung south, releasing over two feet of snow in the Sacramento Mountains.
After 23 years of trying, I finally succeeded in chasing a major snowstorm north into the higher mountains for a couple of days of phenomenal cross-country skiing!
It was 10 years ago that we wandered into the Gila Lower Box while exploring some back roads along the AZ-NM border. I've been hankering to return to the area ever since.
We've returned to this area many times since stumbling upon it during an exploration of the Gila Lower Box WSA in 2019.
How to relive some of the excitement of my initial visits to the Cat Walk, which is now hopelessly tamed by a series of overbuilt industrial-grade steel skyways? One way is to approach it from above, via the Gold Dust Trail.
The West Fork Gila just might be the perfect fall hike. A cold start is the price you pay for maximum color, but it's totally worth it.
In 1986, I took a ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad, and fell in love with the Southwest. For my 70th birthday, my gift was to take that ride again.
After an extraordinarily hot, dry Summer, we got a week of intermittent rain courtesy of tropical storms pounding the Gulf of Mexico. We decided it might be a good time to check out a possible alternate access to Noonday Canyon.
After a most welcome bout of cool, rainy weather, the heat has returned. We had to cancel our trip to Chaco Canyon, but we promised ourselves some local adventures as compensation. At the top of the list was Sheep Corral Canyon. This is one of the few roads that provides access to a remote section of the Continental Divide Trail.
Fortunately, in late August, our thirsty forest was blessed with backwash from a series of tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico. With the rain came some relief from record high temperatures. Our hiking group had been waiting for the weather to cool off enough to splash in the Middle Fork of the Gila River.
The Forest Service is throwing everything they have at the fires, but there are too many! What will happen if the crazy heat continues? Or if it gets worse? I've been hiking, backpacking and camping in the Gila Wilderness for 25 years. Will there be anything left of it when this awful Summer is over?