![]() It can refer to almost any environment: jungle, swamp, icebound tundra, open ocean. “If he’s in the Gila, they’ll never find him.” He described it as hard country, an endless labyrinth of mountain ranges and canyons, and home to monstrously large mountain lions. ![]() “That’s Apache land, where Geronimo was born,” he told me. A neighboring rancher speculated the man would head south for the Gila Wilderness. News broke that a convict had escaped from prison. My introduction to the Gila came one summer when I was a kid, staying with my grandparents in Colorado. He identified 1,200 square miles at the center of the sprawling Gila National Forest (pronounced HEE-luh), which contained the headwaters of the Gila River, and in 1924, the Forest Service designated it as the world’s first wilderness area. But there should be something else, Leopold argued, a place left unaltered by humans. By then, the government had recognized two kinds of public lands: National parks were to be preserved for recreational use and could be improved with roads, lodges, and other amenities, while national forests were to be managed for their resources, including timber, minerals, grazing, and game. His encounter with the wolf and other observations led Leopold in 1922 to write a letter calling for a new land designation. That young forester was Aldo Leopold, part of a vanguard of rangers looking to employ the latest science to manage millions of acres of federal land. It’s possible to trace that dying wolf to the creation of the place where we were camped, the Gila Wilderness. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” Near the end of his life, the forester wrote: “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes … I was young then, and full of trigger itch I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. Wolves, then, were considered vermin, the destroyer of cattle, elk, and deer, and eliminating them, and all predators, would create a better environment. They spied a wolf and her pups in the canyon, grabbed their rifles, and shot them. He was eating lunch on a rock rim with some of his men. The story Joe was telling goes like this: In 1909, a young forester was surveying land in the southwestern corner of the New Mexico Territory, not far from where we were camped. We waited for the wolf to howl again, or another wolf to answer. But all we could see were the silhouettes of trees, framed against a pale spray of stars. Instinctively, we looked up, trying to glimpse the animal on the ridgeline. But the howl triggered something, and suddenly, I was aware of every sound-the hiss of the fire, the murmur of the horses, my own breathing. Sometimes as we rode over the grassy bluffs and down the switchbacks into the gorges, I felt like I’d gone deaf or had started dreaming. As we rode deeper into this landscape, it seemed that the forests and canyons swallowed nearly all sound, reducing our world to the river, the wind, the horses, our voices. The sound was startling because for the past few days, we’d heard almost nothing. They look like vegetation that the Devil would plant himself! These Thorn Apples are rare in the area but there is a bush or two on the side of the road you may spot if you're very attentive.Please be respectful of copyright. These plants grow big seed pods with very sharp spikey thorns. Possibly the coolest plant you may encounter in the area is called a Oak Leaf Thorn Apple. These junipers are some of the only sources of shade in the entire area. Around the arroyos you will see some healthy juniper growing, taking advantage of the monsoons downpours. You will spot some prickly pear cactus here and there, although not in large amounts. Much more gently when they brush up on your legs. The other dominant plant of the plains is common grass. If you set your hand on the ground for a split second, guaranteed they will be covered with some pointy plants of many varieties. These tumbleweeds are surprisingly pointy and are irritating once they poke you. Everywhere you see is covered with Russian Thistle, aka tumbleweeds. The foliage of this area is worth noting if you are coming from out of state. Once you finally reach the wilderness, you will be greeted with a variety of hardy desert plants surrounded by dramatic hills.
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