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Sunset MagazineTop 10 Romantic Cottages
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Fodor's239 Great Places to Escape to Nature
Guests interested in Hiking will find much to enjoy during their stay at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses!
We have 265 acres of pristine high desert terrain that comprise the Casitas de Gila Bear Creek Nature Preserve. At present the Preserve is accessed by 15 different trails offering over 7 miles of hiking and walking through diverse, natural landscapes ranging in elevation from 4,700 feet to 5,500 feet. The trails vary from short, easy hikes right out the door of your Casita to longer, more difficult hikes into the hills and mountains beyond. Download our Trail Map for a look at our trails.
Some of our trails require crossing Bear Creek, which will not be possible if the creek is running strong due to monsoon rains or winter/spring runoff.
One trail that is popular with all of our guests is our Self-Guided Nature Trail. This 0.6-mile loop trail winds its way across the side of the canyon just below the Casitas and then down to the Bear Creek floodplain before returning back to the Casitas. A detailed trail guide, provided in each Casita, will introduce you to the natural and cultural history of this special part of Southwest New Mexico by means of numbered markers at selected stops along the trail. In addition to identifying and providing interesting information about the plants, shrubs, trees, rocks, and rock formations encountered on the trail, the trail guide offers insight into the local geologic history, land forms and topography, and Native American and pioneer heritage.
During the Winter of 2017-18, a new trail — the Cliffside Loop Trail — was developed for the Self-Guided Nature Trail. This trail opens up a unique, very special place along the Bear Creek floodplain on the east side of the creek where towering cottonwoods and sycamores soar skyward from a small clearing nestled between the gurgling waters of Bear Creek on the west and the 130-foot vertical cliffs of Gila Conglomerate on the east. Several sections of a huge cottonwood log have been placed for sitting, and there’s a picnic table with benches and two comfortable reclining chairs along the trail. It’s an ideal spot for birding and wildlife enthusiasts, for those seeking Nature’s solitude, for enjoying lunch within a natural atrium, for undisturbed reading, drawing, or painting, or simply for tranquil meditation.
“Here, a quiet place awaits, where the only sounds are those of leaves rustling overhead, the murmur of the Creek, and the joyful chatter of birds as their sounds filter down on the golden shafts of sunlight that stream through the leaves high above.”
Several other trails are designed to highlight other fascinating aspects of the Bear Creek Riparian Area that extends for 3/4-mile through the middle of the Casita lands. Over the millennia this unassuming little creek, which normally babbles along quietly year-round about 100-feet below the Casitas, has cut deeply into this desert upland, following an ancient fault line to produce a spectacular cliff-lined canyon, heavily vegetated with groves of Cottonwood, Sycamore, Willow, Walnut, Ash, and Gray Oak. Several of the cottonwood and sycamore are very large and ancient, measuring up to 27 feet in girth and several hundreds of years in age.
Behind and immediately adjacent to the Casitas to the west are easy to moderately difficult trails winding across the juniper, pinon, mesquite, catclaw, and cactus covered flats and hills along the road leading into the Casitas. One easy trail, the Terrace-Hillside Trail, leads up to a nice picnic spot that overlooks Bear Creek Canyon, Turtle Rock, and the multi-colored lava flows and ash falls which make up the steep-walled escarpment of the Pinos Altos Range in the Gila Wilderness just five miles to the north
Across and beyond the creek, challenging and steeper trails await the more adventurous hiker. One interesting trail, the Dry Wash Trail, a favorite with rock and mineral collectors, leads up a dry wash side canyon from Bear Creek that is lined with colorful cliffs of Gila Conglomerate. Another trail, strictly for the physically fit, the Paradise Overlook Trail, climbs abruptly some 800 feet in elevation from Bear Creek over about a mile to provide an eagle’s eye view of the whole Gila Valley, the Pinos Altos and Mogollon mountains, the Gila Wilderness, the Blue Mountain Wilderness, the Burro Mountains, and beyond into Arizona.
Each Casita has a nature library with various books, guidebooks, and information about hiking in general and the major hiking trails in the area. When you are ready to venture away from the Casitas, your hosts, Becky and Michael O’Connor, will be glad to suggest trails that will maximize your interests and experience. We also can provide detailed topographic maps for specific trails and nearby areas. Additional maps and information about selected trails in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness areas are on display in our Art Gallery courtyard. Copies of these are available from the very friendly folks at the Glenwood Ranger Station a short distance from the Casitas and on the way to some of the best trails to be found in the Gila National Forest.
Caps, hand-carved walking sticks, and books and maps detailing hikes and hiking in the area, are available for purchase in our Art Gallery. Walkie-talkies are provided for guests who are walking alone on the Casita lands.
The Gila National Forest in Southwest New Mexico is a hiker’s paradise, comprising some 3.3 million acres of pristine landscape consisting of soaring mountains rising to 11,000 feet, 1,500-foot-deep canyons, and High Chihuahauan Desert mesas and upland grasslands.
Enclosed within its boundaries are three designated wilderness areas: the Gila Wilderness area (550,000+ acres), the Aldo Leopold Wilderness area (202,000 acres) and the Blue Range Wilderness area (29,000 acres).
Situated just five miles north of Casitas de Gila Guesthouses, the Gila Wilderness and surrounding Gila National Forest offers our guests unlimited day hiking opportunities, ranging from easy, low-gradient walks along the Gila River, to moderately difficult, spectacular hikes through deep, high-walled canyons, to strenuous hikes across alpine peaks and ridges for experienced outdoor enthusiasts. This is true, unspoiled wilderness hiking, offering outstanding natural beauty, vegetation, and wildlife. With the exception of a few trails around the more popular visitor destinations (such as the Catwalk or Gila Cliff Dwellings) most of the trails are unimproved and little traveled. On most day hikes it is quite common to spend a full day on the trail without seeing another soul, a simple fact which, unfortunately, is becoming a rapidly-increasing rarity in the U.S. West today.
The diversity of the types of day-hike trail experiences available from Casitas de Gila is amazing. Depending on your length of stay with us, be it a day or two, or a week or longer, we can suggest and guide you to a new trail based on your interests for every day that you are here.
Here are some of the diverse day-hike experiences available to consider:
Along the beautiful and historic Gila River with its old-growth Cottonwood, Sycamore, and Willow riverine forests, or along its equally pristine, secretive, and rarely visited tributary, the San Francisco River. Curious to see a 1000-year-old, 8-foot diameter Alligator Juniper? We can send you there!
some are easily reached, while others require a full-day’s challenging effort, such as the not-so-easy-to-find Apache Chief Geronimo’s favorite hideaway spa in the Gila Wilderness.
with spectacular mountain vistas or winding passages through deep, multi-colored, volcanic rock-walled canyons.
along crystal clear mountain streams, strewn with multicolored boulders, descending from Wilderness high country through Ponderosa and Alpine Coniferous Forests; or sunny treks across sparsely-vegetated High Desert mesas or rolling expanses of upland grassland and juniper.
A unique variety of dedicated trails featuring the best birding and wildlife watching opportunities in Southwest New Mexico.
or satisfaction for the avid nature photographer, landscape artist, or the aspiring connoisseur collector of fine rocks and gemstones.
leading to signs and remnants of the past, such as ancient 1000-year-old Native American petroglyphs and pictographs; abandoned 19th and 20th century gold, silver, copper, and fluorite mines, mills and prospects; or historical sites that bring to life Native American and Pioneer settler, rancher, and military interaction or conflict in the Old Southwes
Once a guest at Casitas de Gila has decided which types of trails are of greatest interest, Becky and Michael are available to suggest and discuss appropriate trail choices for existing seasonal weather conditions, and provide detailed maps that will get you to your trailhead in the shortest amount of time.
One of the great things about Southwest New Mexico is that hiking in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness is excellent no matter what the season.
In the Winter, day-hiking trails in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness below 7,000 to 8,000 feet are almost always free of snow, with daytime temperatures rising well above freezing, especially on trails with Southern exposure. Southern exposure trails predominate when hiking from the Casitas due to our location on the south side of the Gila Wilderness. Hiking in late fall, winter, and early spring is at its exhilarating best, typically with a brilliant Sun arcing low through crystal clear, deep cobalt blue skies.
However, during the winter months occasional low pressure systems do move through from the west, bringing clouds and moisture for two or three days before clearing out. Precipitation during these times generally starts out as rain at lower elevations as the low approaches, drawing warm air up from Mexico, but may turn to snow as the low passes east and cold air is drawn down from the north. Then, usually within a day after the low passes, the Sun returns, quickly melting the few inches of snow that might have fallen overnight at elevations below 7,000 feet. During these winter months the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness are a landscape and nature photographer’s delight, especially on hikes through the deep canyons where the brilliant, hard light of the Winter Sun cascades and refracts down sheer, multi-colored volcanic walls, creating a fantastic collage of golden light and deep blue and purple shadows along the half-frozen creek below.
With Spring, daytime temperatures are ideal for hiking, as the trails at all elevations in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness open up for the hiker. During the Spring, most trails will present a wide variety of wildflowers as the forest wakes joyously alive with the calls of an increasingly diverse population of birds now making their annual northward migration. Spring runoff from mountain snow can vary significantly in volume from year to year and in some cases results in the temporary closure of some trails, but certainly not all. During this time your hosts at the Casitas are always available to advise and make suggestions if a desired trail is deemed unsuitable for travel.
Late Spring and Early Summer (primarily the months of May and June) in the Gila area can be quite hot for open, cross-country hiking at lower elevations, with daytime temperatures typically reaching into the high 80s and 90s F, before dropping 30 to 50 degrees overnight. However, for hikers coming to this area during these weeks before the Monsoon rains start in early to mid July, relief is just a mountaintop trail or canyon creek or river hike away.
There are several outstanding high country hikes in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness leading across rocky mountainous divides and through Alpine forests in excess of 8,000 feet where the air is cool and crisp. Also, many of the day hikes available from the Casitas in the Gila National Forest begin at trailhead elevations of around 6,000 feet and lead up spectacular, well-shaded canyons into the high country of the Gila Wilderness. On such trails, temperatures are generally 10 to 20 degrees cooler than those found at the surrounding lowland elevation. Another heat-avoidance option is a short or long hike up or down the Gila River or San Francisco River. During these weeks just before the Monsoon rains begin, the Gila and San Francisco rivers are generally at their lowest levels for the year, thus allowing hiking on Forest trails that lead along the river banks and through the adjacent floodplain riverine forests of Cottonwood, Sycamore, and Willow. These unique hikes make for a delightful and very different kind of hiking experience in the Gila National Forest. Great rock hunting, surprise encounters with ancient Native American sites, abundant birds and animals, and crystal clear pools for swimming and cooling off await hikers here at this time of the year
Once the Monsoon rains begin, generally by mid July, daytime temperatures moderate significantly, making almost all Gila National Forest trails good choices for Summer hiking, with the exception of some trails where flash flooding from thunderstorms could create problems. In these cases, your hosts Becky and Michael would be able to provide good alternative options.
For many of our guests, Fall is the optimum season for hiking in the Gila National Forest and Gila Wilderness. The temperatures are just right, the leaves are turning, and the Fall bird southern migration is underway for all to enjoy. With the Summer Monsoon season ending by the second or third week in September, flash flooding on the creeks or rivers is now no longer an issue of concern and all trails in the Forest are open. Depending on trail elevation, the peak in colorful fall foliage will vary from late September and early October along trails in the high country Aspen and Conifer forests to late October through the middle of November for those hiking the riverine forests of Cottonwoods, Sycamores, and Willows along the Gila and San Francisco rivers and tributaries, such as the Bear Creek Nature Preserve at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses. Fall is a gorgeous and inspiring time for hikers of all persuasions, be they avid birders, nature photographers, or hard core hikers wanting to get up into the high country for a final day-hike or overnight backpacking trip before Winter closes in.
If you are considering staying a Casitas de Gila Guesthouses before or after an overnight or multi-day backpacking/camping trip in the Gila Forest or Gila Forest, it is highly recommended that you do some serious pre-planning and investigation before you arrive in Southwest New Mexico.
In 2012, the Gila Wilderness experienced the huge Whitewater-Baldy fire which charred vast acreage in the Gila Wilderness, primarily in the higher elevations, resulting in the closure of some of the high country trails. However, since that time several of the main high country trails have been restored.
A newly-updated guidebook that we recommend is Hiking New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness by Bill Cunningham and Polly Burk, published by Falcon Publishing (2017). There’s a copy of the 1999 edition of this book in each of our Casitas, and the new edition is for sale in our Art Gallery.
Your hosts, Becky and Michael, are always ready to share with our guests at Casitas de Gila Guesthouses up-to-date local knowledge and any current information they have about trail conditions, closures, and re-openings.