Hiking Silver City

 

Although I did some research prior to coming to Silver City, we had no idea there were so many hiking trails within a short distance of town. Besides the Boston Hills and Ft. Bayard hikes I already posted about, we discovered that the Continental Divide Trail, which runs from Canada to Mexico, crosses Hwy 15 just north of Pinos Altos, about 7 miles north of Silver City on the way to the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

It was a good climb up from the parking area, but finally leveled out and became very scenic.

We also did another great hike in the Little Walnut area, part of the Gila National Forest, just 5 miles from downtown. We took the 4.5 mile loop around Gomez Peak, which was a lovely trail, passing through pinon-juniper woods, then coming out along a virtual agave forest, with the century plants in various stages of growth.

 

For at least half the hike we had panoramic views of the Silver City area, and didn’t see another person on the trail.

 

We started our last couple hikes from the Dragonfly Trailhead, about 2 miles down the road, part of the Ft. Bayard area of the Gila NF. We did the three mile loop which traverses a riparian area along Twin Sisters Creek and passes by some petroglyphs. It was another nice trail, an easy, mostly level hike. It rained off and on the past couple days but we managed to get in another hike there with Elliot, where you are allowed to let dogs off leash.

This is why they call it the Dragonfly Trail. Jim just loves petroglyphs.

We extended our stay here another week and have several more trails in mind for other hikes. So far we’ve only encountered a handful of other people on all the trails we’ve been on, which really makes for great hiking. And we’ve enjoyed exploring the quirky town of Silver City, even though we haven’t found any good pizza here.