Drive Through Aldo Leopold Wilderness

On Thursday, January 30, 2020, we took a drive north from Faywood, New Mexico, through the Gila National Forest.  We didn't know much about it.

Our route started from Faywood and led to San Lorenzo, New Mexico, where we turned west and entered the national forest:

Once in the forest, northeast of San Lorenzo along NM 152, we started ascending and saw snowy peaks above the hills that were scarred by the Silver Fire of 2013:

It wasn't long before we reached the Emory Pass Vista.  It was named after a Lieutenant of the Army of the West who led an expedition through this area in 1846.  From here, we had a view out across the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness is rugged and remote and is often considered New Mexico's "wildest wilderness," probably seeing fewer human visitors now than it did 100 years ago. Hiking and backpacking are the major recreational activities, but scarcity of water inhibits many potential visitors. Most streams and springs are seasonal and unreliable. More than 200 miles of trails crisscross the wilderness, including about 30 miles of the Continental Divide Trail. Most trails are faint and little used and navigation can be a problem. Scenery and solitude are the main attractions of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

The best known and most accessible trail into the wilderness leads from Highway 152 at 8,228-foot Emory Pass and goes five miles north to Hillsboro Peak which reaches an elevation of 10,011 feet. This trail continues to follow the entire north-south length of the mountains along the central ridge, a distance of 51.4 miles from Emory Pass to Caledonia trailhead on New Mexico 226. There are also a number of campgrounds, some with hiking trails, along NM 152 as it goes through Iron Canyon on the west side of the Black Range.

Aldo Leopold, who died in 1948, was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies.  Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management.

One of Aldo Leopold's first assignments was as a ranger in this wilderness, and we could see why he loved these lands so much:

Further along Highway 152, toward the town of Hillsboro, we encountered the historic Percha Creek Bridge, which was deemed significant in part as "the oldest and highest rated Warren design steel deck truss bridge in New Mexico...."

Hillsboro itself is a quirky and colorful town, with its own Cat Crossing --

-- and the beautiful Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Church:

We turned down NM 27 and arrived at Historic Lake Valley.  The story of Lake Valley has all of the elements of the Wild West stories seen in the movies. In the 1880s it was a wild frontier mining town with gamblers, mining stock promoters, cattle rustlers, Apache raids and vigilante justice. The mountains of southwestern New Mexico were the home of several bands of Apaches. Apache warfare with the Spanish settlers started around 1650. Fear of the Apaches kept all but a few prospectors out of the area until Army Forts were established and the Apaches agreed to go to reservations.  Following the start of a few mining camps north of Lake Valley the first ranches were started in the 1870s. One of these ranchers, McEvers, or a prospector named Lufkin was the first to notice silver ore at Lake Valley. The low grade silver ore came to the surface between two layers of limestone for about half a mile. McEvers and Lufkin made mining claims along this out crop in 1878 and others prospectors came to the area and made claims. Today it is a true ghost town with only a BLM caretaker to prevent vandalism.

Our true goal of the drive today was Hatch, New Mexico, at the western end of Highway 26 where it meets I-25.  We stopped at our favorite green chile outlet, Gilly's, to purchase some great Hatch green chile products, then worked our way back for lunch at the kitsch-iest tourist spot in town -- Sparky's:

After lunch, we headed back down to Deming, south of our campground, and found time after a little shopping to tour the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum.  The museum's exhibits focus on the everyday lives and history of area residents. Collections include Mimbres pottery, dolls and toys, glass, china, crystal, teapots, silver, copper and Depression glass, and saddles and ranching equipment. Other exhibits include period rooms, furniture, paintings, tools, clothes, Native American artifacts, gems and geodes, weapons, war memorabilia, vehicles and farm equipment.

However, the most spectacular exhibits in the museum are devoted to pottery and other artifacts of the local Mimbres Culture:

There are also impressive exhibits of arts such as local, hand-made quilts --

-- and paintings and other artwork depicting the beauty and starkness of the region:

Kathy found a very impressive room full of geodes and thunder eggs -- cases and cases of them from all over the West, including these giant geodes:

We wound up our day joining our friends Gaila and Dick to view the Oscar-nominated film, "1917," and then have dinner as the very reasonably-priced but genuine Hispanic eatery, "Irma's," in downtown Deming.

It was a busy day, and we covered many miles, but we got a good introduction to the area north of Deming.  We expect to make another stop here and get deeper into the Aldo Leopold Wilderness and find other exciting things to learn about.  In the meantime, our next big stop will be at Big Bend National Park.  We expect to have several blog posts about adventures in that starkly beautiful landscape.