Gila Visitor Center

Gila Visitor Center

Southwest region of New MexicoIn the abundance of the Gila National Forest, in southwest New Mexico, nature provided a rich diversity of life. From the high spruce-fir reaches of an eleven thousand foot peak in the Mogollon Mountains where golden eagles play with the wind, down to the semi-arid four-thousand-two-hundred-foot elevation, vibrant with antelope and Chihuahuan and Upper Sonoran desert cacti, there are six distinct "plant communities."

With three million three hundred thousand acres, the Gila contains more publicly owned land than any other national forest outside of Alaska. Within the Gila Forest is the largest wilderness in the southwest, the Gila Wilderness. This superb example of pristine mountains, forests, range land and protected desert is the first-ever designated wilderness area in the world.

Gila Visitor Center
HC 68. Box 100
Silver City, NM88061
Phone: (505) 536-9461
www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm