APACHERIA IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO
EXPLORING THE HOMELAND OF THE CHIRICAHUA APACHE IN SOUTHWEST NEW MEXICO PART 2 OF 2 NOTE: This is Part 2 of a blog covering the history of the Chiricahua Apache from the initial Spanish incursion and later Anglo-American settlement in their ancestral homeland up to the final surrender of the Chiricahua in 1886. (Read Part […]
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 […]
A GLORIOUS HIKE in the Middle Box of the Gila River to a 1,000-year-old Swimming Hole Carved in the Ash-Flow Tuffs of the Schoolhouse Mountain Caldera
Two week ago, two of our good friends from County Kerry, Ireland, spent a few days with us at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses while touring the American West. At the time, the lightening-caused Whitewater-Baldy fire had been burning for two weeks in the heart of the Gila Wilderness some 20 miles to the northwest […]
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 […]
A Time-Travel Hike Up Mineral Creek to Cooney Camp & Mine
On September 2, 1877, the Apache Chief Victorio, a major leader of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apache, and four other Chihenne chiefs — Loco, Nana, Mangas, and Tomaso Coloradas — fled the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, along with some 300 Chihenne and a small band of Bedonkohe Chiricahua Apache1. They left the […]
And the Rains Came … Spotty at first, then stronger
With the metal roof now secure on the new porch on our Casa and Office, the Gila Nature Blog can resume once more. Frequently Becky’s “little” home improvement projects can become rather all-consuming, and the Porch Project was no exception. But now that the result has passed muster by The Boss (and I’m quite pleased […]
Turkey Creek Hot Springs: The Perfect Wilderness Connection
There is something deeply primal about the allure that hot springs have over people. Just where within our psyche or corporeal being this attraction lies we may never know. Yet for most of us, it is there. Latent, perhaps, until one comes upon that first warm seep or gush of hot water bubbling up mysteriously […]
NEW TRAIL! The Hidden Spring Trail
As of this week, a new trail is open for guests staying at Casitas de Gila. This new trail is located on the northern end of our property and transects a 4.5 acre piece of land that we acquired in late 2010. This trail is short, only one-third mile long, yet offers an exceptionally interesting […]
