Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness [Paperback]

Bill Cunningham (Author), Polly Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1999

New Mexico's 555,000-acre Gila Wilderness is a vast untrammeled patchwork of virtually unlimited forest types, climatic conditions, and wildlife.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

New Mexico's 555,000-acre Gila Wilderness is a vast untrammeled patchwork of virtually unlimited forest types, climatic conditions, and wildlife. This rugged landscape boasts sweeping tundra, hot springs, mountain views, and deep gnarled canyons. Within Gila's boundaries, you can follow trails to views of the breathtaking peaks of the Mogollon Range, wonder at ancient cliff dwellings, and wind your way along stream-ribboned ponderosa forests.

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Falcon Publishing, Inc.; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560447389
• ISBN-13: 978-1560447382
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nearly Definitive, July 19, 2001

By 

"harryevich" (the Continental Divide) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness (Paperback)

This is almost a definitive guide to hiking in the Gila Wilderness. I used to hike trails in the Gila Wilderness, and I wish I had had this guidebook. It has all the important information you need, such as which trails are still in use, where the trail might fade away, where the reliable water is, and how long to plan your trip for each trail.

It is chock full of useful information. For each hike, it gives an elevation diagram for the hike; detailed directions to the trail head; the best season to go; a table of how far key points are from the trail head; special hazards and considerations presented by the hike; the highlights of the hike expressed in a sentence; the difficulty of the hike; and the maps you will need. It also covers the facilities at the trail head, and gives options for side hikes. All this in addition to extremely detailed information about the hikes themselves, likely camping areas, reliable sources of water etc. And it does this for every significant trail in the Gila Wilderness! This is a significant improvement over Murray's book which gives sketchy information about fewer trails.

The tables and diagrams in this book are a model of what good guide books should contain. For example, there is a map showing all the USGS quad map locations for the Wilderness, a Map showing all trail head locations schematically, a table that allows you to choose a hike based on what type of hike you want, a detailed table of contents, and a gear checklist. The only thing it doesn't have are GPS coordinates. Of course, it might not be enough to own just this book, if the trail is very lightly used...you should bring USGS topo maps and a compass at the very least. There is a also a Wilderness Map and Visitor Guide for the Wilderness which is worth purchasing.

This book is obviously written after long and hard backpacking through the wilderness. The authors are extremely well-organized and systematic in the things they note, and in their presentation. Even so, after having been in this wilderness, I know there is much that is not in this book that is waiting for the reader to discover. The black and white pictures in the book can only convey a little of the flavor of the beauty that is there. You really have to experience this beauty for yourself. Armed with this book, I think you will be able to have a safer, and more enjoyable time while doing it.

...the Gila Forest (which is 3 million acres), [is] not ...the Gila Wilderness, [which is] a more protected area which is indeed 550,000 acres. A wilderness is a place where cars, and all forms of motorized transport cannot go. In contrast, cars can drive along forest roads. ...

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good guide to trails in the Gila Wilderness, April 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness (Paperback)

This is a thorough guide to hundreds of miles of trails in the Gila Wilderness. The authors describe approximately 60 different trails, rated by length of hike and difficulty, which are not the same thing. Their maps and instructions for getting to the trailhead are detailed enough to get to the hike. This reader wished that their trail descriptions included more details on how difficult the trails were to follow, particularly since many of the trails criss-cross streams and since they warn the reader that many of the trails are old and somewhat difficult to find. But there's a huge amount of information in this book, from what's available at the stores in nearby towns to where to get showers to road conditions to trailheads. It's a great resource.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Wilderness but this book is very bad, March 28, 2009

By 

Joe Burns "joeontheroad" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hiking New Mexico's Gila Wilderness (Paperback)

I have done about six trips to the Gila Wilderness over the last five years, as well as many other backpacking trips. While I generally like Falcon guides, this is one of the worst backpacking books I have used. It duplicates passages by including the same portion of a hike several times in different hikes. The author is more interested in flowery descriptions than in safety and accurate trail descriptions. Hiking in the Southwest, accurate descriptions of water locations are key, but the author is very vague on the location of springs. Very unlike the other Falcon books, such as the one on the Superstitions Wilderness Area. It may be you are stuck buying this book until Falcon finds a better author but beware as not all the trail descriptions are correct, especially Turkeyfeather mountain.