Grant County · ⭐ Anchor
Gila National Forest & Gila Wilderness
The country’s first designated Wilderness (1924) and the dominant recreation backdrop for Grant County — hiking, camping, fishing, scenic byways.
Roughly 3.3 million acres of high-desert canyons, ponderosa-pine plateaus, and river corridors — the Gila is the substrate underneath nearly every outdoor activity on this list.
The Forest Service lists Gila Cliff Dwellings, Fort Bayard Museum, and the Catwalk among the cultural-history stops. Allow at least a weekend if you’re sampling more than one corridor.
Best mistake-avoidance: download offline maps before leaving Silver City. Cell coverage on NM-15 and along the West Fork is unreliable.
Best for:
hikingcampingfishinghorseback ridingbirdingscenic drives