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Everyone should visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings at some point. They are awesome. But for most of us this will not be enough. The reason is that they are easy to hike to and it takes one 1 hour to see the whole thing. For that you must drive more than 300 miles one way (from the Phoenix area) including a difficult 44 miles on route 15 past Silver City (you will probably need a drink after that ride).

But there are nice free campgrounds a short walk from the Dwellings and a number of day hikes you can do as well. Open camping is permitted also. Searching the internet I found some backpacks that originate from there as well. The Hells Hole loop on the West Fork is one that appears quite popular.

By my way of thinking you will need to spend a few days and hike or backpack the area to make the trip worthwhile. My trip report (Gila Dwellings & Day Hikes, NM) has a collection of day hikes I did but there are lots of other choices that can be made. Gila National Forest is great and not that far from home.

This is a great trip from Tucson as well! In less time than it takes to get to Flagstaff, you can be in the cool mountains, with rivers and amazing cliff dwellings (and a fraction of the people you'll find in many Northern AZ locales)! Thanks for your trip report, gpsjoe, now there are even more adventures I want to explore up there!

I visited last November and plan to go back again when I get the chance. There's lots of good stuff in the Gila.

For me, the central Gila NF is all about the wilderness of the same name. If I head up there, be it for a day or a month, I want to make some headway into the West Fork and starting exploring. I first came to the SW in 2003 from Florida. The 2nd place I really visited was the Gila (after Guadalupe NP and a drive through Cloudcroft via Carlsbad, NM), and ever since I was up there I was wanted to return to do a multi-night trip into the wilderness. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that this year, but I still want to.

Gila River Forks is the most awesome trek I've done in that wilderness. Headed up Little Bear out of the TJ corral, then up the Middle Fork and crossed over on the Trotter trail, did a side trip to a cabin, then back over and finally down to the West Fork by the forest service cabin. Then down the West Fork. Totaled about 66 miles of heaven. Highly recommended. You'll have over 100 water crossings, some hot springs, and some elevation up on the mesa.

I'll probably be doing something over there on July 4th off the Crest trail. Great place, never get tired of it.

RedRoxx44 wrote:Headed up Little Bear out of the TJ corral, then up the Middle Fork ...you'll have over 100 water crossings, some hot springs...

Little Bear and the Middle Fork are really spectacular. We had a low of 15F our first night out, and there was ice along the river's edge. We met a Swiss CDT through-hiker who said she had done 59 crossings in two hours. She was wearing shorts and flip-flops, even thoughh it was still below freezing. She carried a towel and dried off as fast as possible after each crossing. We only hiked about a couple miles in the Middle Fork, most of it barefoot (that ice was cold, and the water was worse ).