575-535-4455
info@casitasdegila.com

Southwestern Guesthouses on 265 Acres
near Silver City, New Mexico
overlooking Bear Creek and the Gila Wilderness

A HIKE UP LITTLE DRY CREEK IN THE GILA FOREST

 A THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY HIKE UP LITTLE DRY CREEK IN THE MOGOLLON MOUNTAINS OF THE GILA NATIONAL FOREST IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO Finding Nature’s Treasure Where Early Miners and Prospectors Toiled A HIKE FOR THE OVERINDULGENT The day after Thanksgiving dawned bright, crisp, and clear, absolutely perfect for walking off those over indulgences of the previous […]

A FALL HIKE IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO

  A FALL AFTERNOON’S HIKE ACROSS THE UP AND DOWN COUNTRY OF LOWER LITTLE DRY CREEK IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO Gentle on the Body … Exhilarating for the Soul SEARCHING FOR OCTOBER GOLD IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO Setting out from Casitas de Gila Guesthouses for a late October day’s touring and hiking in Southwest New […]

FOREST FIRES & CYCLES OF NATURAL CHANGE IN THE GILA WILDERNESS

 THE WHITEWATER-BALDY COMPLEX FIRE:LARGEST FOREST FIRE IN NEW MEXICO’S RECORDED HISTORY It was early on the afternoon of May 16, 2012 while taking the trash from Casitas de Gila Guesthouses to the Gila transfer station, that one first noticed the fire about 25 miles away to the northwest: two small columns of smoke drifting lazily […]

A BRIGHT GREEN NEW MEXICO OASIS

 BEAR CREEK IN JUNE: A BRIGHT GREEN OASIS IN A HIGH-DESERT LANDSCAPE WAITING FOR THE RAINS TO COME MAY AND JUNE: DRYING TIME IN THE HIGH DESERT SOUTHWEST It is late into the “waiting for the rain time” again here at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses on Bear Creek in Gila, New Mexico. It has been […]

A HIKE DOWN LITTLE DRY CREEK CANYON

  A FASCINATING JOURNEY THROUGH DEEP CANYONS OF MULTICOLORED VOLCANIC ROCKS LINED WITH ANCIENT, WHITE-BARKED SYCAMORE   It was around October 26, 1885, when the Chokonon Apache Chief Ulzana and about 20 warriors crossed the border into New Mexico from Mexico to begin a series of raids in New Mexico and Arizona. Their purpose was […]

Coronado Expedition of 1540-1542

  TRACING ANCIENT TRAILS IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO The year was 1539 and the young Spanish Conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had just been installed as the new Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, a province of New Spain located in northwest Mexico and comprising the present-day Mexican states of Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Nayarit. […]

SAN FRANCISCO HOT SPRINGS

 A Day Hike to the San Francisco Hot Springs and the Pristine Wilderness of the San Francisco River Canyon The San Francisco River is the largest tributary to the Gila River. Over its 160-mile course, it flows through some of the most scenic country in Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico. Emerging from its mountainous […]

Hiking New Mexico’s Gila River

 Hiking the Mogollon Box Trail — Gateway to the Gila Wilderness A short six miles upstream from the communities of Gila and Cliff, New Mexico, the Gila River exits the soaring mountains and rugged canyons of the Mogollon Range of the Gila Wilderness within the Gila National Forest to begin a more leisurely, meandering flow westward […]

The Catwalk and Gold Dust Trails in Southwest New Mexico

A SPECTACULAR JOURNEY INTO THE 34-MILLION-YEAR-OLDMOGOLLON SUPERVOLCANO OF THE GILA WILDERNESS With his long-awaited discharge from the U.S. Army at Ft. Bayard in 1875, Sergeant James C. Cooney was at last free to pursue the exploration and development of a mineral vein he had discovered and claimed five years earlier while on patrol up what […]