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Erik and I decided to head to the Gila Wilderness in the Gila National Forest for our memorial day weekend. The Gila Wilderness is pretty far south, near the town of Truth or Consequences (yes, it's really a name, from a TV show years ago), so this is a good time to visit before things really heat up down there.
On the way, we drove over Emory Pass, at 8,228 feet. It was much cooler than down below at T or C (nickname for Truth or Consequences), but we still like a good soda with our view and Erik caught me chugging my 7-Up.
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Emory Pass |
Chugging Soda |
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| We decided to car camp the first night at Scorpion Campground near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Mounument Visitor Center. The cliff dwellings were closed by the time we got there, though, so after setting up our camp, we headed for a short hike down to Middle Fork of the Gila River to check out the water levels of the river thaat we were going follow the next day, and to also to check out a hotspring one mile up from the parking lot. |
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The water level was no higher than my knee, and we found the hotsprings, which were very hot at 110 degrees Farenheit (measured with my little REI keychain thermometer) and very shallow. We sat on the rocks and soaked our feet outside the pools where the hot water mixed with the river water to create a pleasant temperature. |
| Another reason we decided to go hiking over Memorial Day Weekend is for us to check out Erik's new digital camera. I–Ching obliged to his request for a pose: |
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We returned to camp for one more night of civilization before heading out for our wilderness experience, which was just in time after a family pull in with screaming kids and teenagers playing their car stereo for the whole world to hear. We had to take the ceremonial "before" picture at the trailhead. |
| The route we had chosen was to follow the Middle Fork of the Gila River, which involved thirty odd river crossings and to camp near the junction of the Middle Fork and Little Bear Canyon trail, and to do a day hike of 2 miles each way to the Jordan Hot Springs, which was supposed to be better than the Gila Hot Springs the previous day. |
| Some scenery and crossings from our hike into the wilderness |
Although we didnt's see any gila monsters  , we saw lots of other wildlife on this trip. |
| We also saw lots of wildflowers on this trip. |
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| We had been warned by two rangers doing trail maintenance about a large group camping near the area that we were planning to camp. They recommended another camp site a quarter mile closer. We found the place, but another person had taken over it in the mean time, so we pressed on. We managed to find a spot that wasn't too close to the others (i.e. we can't see them) and set up our tent. We had some nice views of cliffs, one with a tree on top, and we hung our packs in a forest of packs. |
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| Next, we headed for the Jordan Hot Springs. It was further than we thought, with more stream crossings. Along the way, we were greeted by more cliffs. After what seemed like ages, we finally got to our destination. It was a big, deep pool. Erik was very happy.
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| Unfortunately, the water was below body temperature, around 94 degrees Farenheit, and the sun was setting, so we only soaked in there for about 15 minutes and headed back to our camp site two miles away. |
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| We managed to get back before dark, but had to eat our dinners in the dark. We turned in to bed, but I-Ching was dreaming of flushing toilets all night, maybe because of the oatmeal breakfasts, or maybe because we can hear the rushing river nearby. Anyway, next morning we had to give our brand new orange trowel a maiden voyage. |
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| We had breakfast and packed up. The beginning of Little Bear Canyon trail is a slot canyon, which was pretty cool. Our camera battery finally ran out, after taking some hundred odd pictures, but we managed to get one more columbine: |
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| After the slot canyon, the rest of the Little Bear Canyon trail was hot and not so interesting. We saw one big jack rabbit, but no little bears. We had one last river crossing at the very end before we made our way back to our car. |
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| We finally visited the visitor center on this last day of our stay in the Gila, where I-Ching picked up her magnet souvenir. They didn't have any pictures of the Gila River, though, only the cliff dwellings, so we had to give it a visit. It was pretty neat, and Erik made it down the "scary" ladder without incident. |
Photo of "scary" ladder by Mary Saxton:
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| Since both the visitor center and the cliff dwelling area didn't sell food, we satisfied our craving for ice cream and soda at a privately-owned store a few miles away, stayed one night in Truth or Consequences (had a big dinner at a nice restaurant named Los Arcos), and drove home Monday morning before the Memorial Day traffic. All in all, it has been a nice varied vacation with car camping, backpacking, and "moteling." |
| THE END |
