Horseback Ride Along the West Fork Gila River with Joe Saenz

Saturday, September 28, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, Participant Limit: 7, Fee: $100 Please contact Joe Saenz at Wolfhorse Outfitters directly to book your ride 575.534.1379

Meet at Woody's Corral, off Hwy 15 on route to Gila Cliff Dwellings at 9 am.

Difficulty level: moderate

Directions:

Ride by the River of Creation, in the heart of Chiricahua Apache and Warm Springs Apache country, the original protectors of this unique and precious inheritance. This is a full day ride to explore the Gila's canyons, valleys, and trails used by the Ancestors. 

Your guide is Joe Saenz, Warm Springs Apache, of WolfHorse Outfitters. Please provide your own sack lunch, snacks and water. Wear sturdy, comfortable clothing, a hat, bandana, and gloves. 

Animal Tracks Along the Gila River with Allison Boyd, Carol Martin, and Sharman Apt Russell  - 1 SPOT LEFT!

Saturday, September 28th, 8:00 am - 1:00 pm, Participant Limit: 15, Fee: $30

Meeting location will be at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center 201 N. Hudson St. at 7:45 am. Travel time to the Gila River: 30-40 minutes each way. 

Difficulty: Easy

Join Allison Boyd, Carol Martin and Sharman Apt Russell near the beautiful Gila River for an introduction to tracking. Learn useful techniques for distinguishing various animal prints, tracking etiquette, scat identification, how to measure and photograph tracks. Other identification details and animal behaviors will be discussed.

Please bring a hat, sunscreen, good hiking shoes, snacks and/or lunch, and plenty of drinking water.

Keeping it Wild! Wilderness Hike with Cynthia Wolf - FULL - send an email to gilariverfest@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list

Saturday, September 28, 8:00 am - 2:30 pm, Participant Limit: 12, Fee: Free; however, registration required 

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at 201 N. Hudson St. at 7:45 am and carpool to the trailhead due limited parking. Travel time is 1.5 hours one way. We will be back in Silver City by 2:30 pm

Difficulty: moderate

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen.”

― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

This hike will follow Forest Service Trail 247 into the Gila Wilderness along Sapillo Creek. As we explore the Sapillo’s path towards the Gila River, we will also explore the path of rewilding both our inner and outer landscapes in the face of present and future environmental challenges, with discussions on the social and ecological value of Wildness and the interconnectedness between them. During this 4-mile roundtrip hike, we will contemplate how Wilderness provides us with an intimate opportunity to experience our connection to Nature.

Please wear long pants due to some poison ivy and bring a hat, sunscreen, sturdy hiking shoes, snacks and lunch, and plenty of drinking water.

A Walk Around the Garden with Monica Rude

Saturday, September 28, 9am -11am, Participant Limit: 12, Fee: $30

Meet at the Gila Valley Library Garden at 411 Highway 211 Gila NM.

Difficulty: Easy; The terrain is flat, mostly not wheelchair accessible.

Directions: From Silver City, take #180 West about 25 miles, to about MM 89. Turn RIGHT on #211. Proceed 4 miles into beautiful downtown Gila. The Library garden is on the left just past the Post Office. 

The Gila Valley Library has created a demonstration garden that is a center for educational programs for young people and the general public, helping to foster an understanding of the numerous benefits of community forests, pollinator habitats, and application of conservation principles. Various techniques have been employed to conserve water, enhance soil microbes, and help plants thrive in the harsh desert climate. This garden is the first demonstration site for the application of New Earth Compost, a biologically diverse and fungal dominant compost that works in partnership with plants to capture carbon in soils, increase soil water holding capacity, fix nitrogen, and improve plant and soil health.

This walk around the garden will include discussion of native and climate-adapted plants to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects, how homeowners can turn their yards into wildlife habitats, desert gardening techniques, composting, weed management, water conservation techniques, mulching, the importance of saving seeds from and growing natives instead of cultivars.

Please bring a hat, sunscreen, and plenty of drinking water.

New Earth Project Site Visit, Bioreactor Tour with Mike and Carol Fugagli 

Saturday September 28th 9:00 am-11:00 am; Participant limit: 30 Fee: FREE

Difficulty: Easy

Directions: Meeting location will be at the New Earth Project site along San Vicente Creek. From Gough Park in Silver City take Hudson St. ( Highway 90) south to Ridge Road. Turn left on Ridge Road and then left on Mobile Drive. Signs at the end of the pavement will direct you to parking at the New Earth Project site. See map below.

Silver City, like many small mountain communities in the American southwest, is directly in the crosshairs of climate change. To have a livable future, not only do we need to reduce current carbon emissions, but carbon drawdown from the atmosphere is a necessary component in all climate models. To respond to this emergency, the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance launched the New Earth Project, focusing on carbon sequestration, food security, fertilizer and pesticide replacement, soil health, food waste reduction, and landfill methane reduction. The centerpiece of this project is an innovative technology: Johnson-Su composting. Johnson-Su composting is a static, aerobic composting system that specializes in the production of a microbially diverse, fungal rich compost that can greatly increase the soil’s potential to sequester carbon, increase water retention, fix nitrogen, and increase plant growth and food production while greatly reducing the need and high costs associated with nitrogen/phosphorus fertilizers and pesticides. The New Earth Project’s Johnson-Su bioreactors are highly replicable using food waste from school cafeterias, and shredded woody biomass acquired from urban silviculture and local forest thinning projects. This program is implemented in tandem with a grade school curriculum and youth employment plan. On this field trip, we will demonstrate how a Johnson-Su bioreactor is filled and describe how it works, discuss how we make biochar using the Ring of Fire, and visit a greenhouse heated with a biochar energy system.

Looking back a thousand years….seeing the next one hundred… FULL

Gila Lower Box Rock Art with Alex Mares

Saturday, Sept. 28th, 6:30am - 4:30pm Participant limit: 15. Fee: $30

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at at 201 N. Hudson St. 6:15 a.m., and carpool/convoy to a side canyon of the Gila Lower Box. Travel time: about 1.5 hrs. each way.

Difficulty: strenuous

Join Native Interpretive Guide Alex Mares for a 6 - 7 mile hike into a side canyon of the Gila River and learn about the history, prehistory, flora and fauna and the efforts to protect both the water and land of the area.

Enjoy beautiful vistas, experience the late summer desert monsoon season and see and learn about ancient petroglyphs in the company of descendants of those who left them and hike down a beautiful multi-colored canyon that leads us to the Gila River itself.

Join us in this strenuous hike to celebrate in the company of locals, out of state visitors and native descendants the successful efforts and struggles to preserve and protect water and land of the last free flowing river, the first Wilderness area and the next 100 years of community, cultural partnership, and sharing!

Migratory Birds of the Gila River with Devyn Scott - FULL - send an email to gilariverfest@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list

Sunday, September 29, 8 am - 12:30 pm, Participant Limit: 12;  Fee: $30

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at 201 N. Hudson St. 7:45 am to carpool to the trailhead due to limited parking. 

Difficulty: Moderate

Starting from the Gila River Bird Area at Pancho Canyon, we will hike 2.5 miles round trip along the Gila River to observe a diverse array of both resident and migratory birds. We'll be looking for waterfowl, songbirds, and raptors, but we’ll likely see some reptiles and possibly mammals too. During our hike, we'll discuss how to be good stewards of the Gila. We'll talk about bird watching etiquette that places nature first and ensures that birds will feel safe for generations to come. 

Wear long pants. Bring your binoculars, hat, sunscreen, snack and/or lunch and lots of water.

Gila Hot Springs Geology Tour with Eric Head - FULL - send an email to gilariverfest@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list

Sunday, September 29th 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, Participant limit: 12, Fee: $30

Meet at 10:00 am at Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot.  Travel time: ~1hr 45 minutes via Highway 15. Field trip will end at 2 pm to be back in Silver City by approximately 3:45pm.

Difficulty: easy

Directions: Begin in Silver City on US Highway 180/Silver Heights Boulevard should take Pinos Altos Road which becomes New Mexico Highway 15 North. NM 15 begins in Silver City and only heads north. Continue for 42 miles until you reach the Gila Visitor Center. To reach the dwellings turn left just before reaching the visitor center and continue for 2 miles until the road ends. The first 25 miles of NM 15 are narrow with steep sections of 10-12% grade for several miles and there is no center dividing line. Vehicles should use lower gears when driving to avoid overheating brakes and stay as far right as possible, especially on tight curves.

Join us for an incredible, hands-on tour of the geologic history of Gila Hot Springs. From its super volcano origins, to the catastrophic earthquakes and landslides that reshaped the landscape and gave birth to the area’s hot springs, to the massive lakes that gave rise to our modern Gila River Headwaters, tag along with Eric Head as he takes you across the valley for a hands on tour of the forces that have shaped this place we love so much.

We will start at the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot, where all of the major geologic events of the area are laid out right in front of you. Then we will travel a few miles down the road to the river where we can see the aftermath of a few of the events up close, do a little rock hounding and identification, and cool off from the heat of the day. After a quick stop for ice cream at Doc Campbell’s General Store, we will head back upstream to the Middle Fork trailhead and take a short (~ ½ mile) hike to Light Feather Hot Springs, where 140 degree water pours out of the living rock!

Make sure and bring shoes that you don’t mind getting wet and please feel free to bring swimming gear – there is no place like the Gila River for a refreshing dip in the cool water on a hot day!

Weather and Climate in the Gila Wilderness with Dylan Duvergé - ONLY 4 SPOTS LEFT!

Sunday, September  29, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, Participant Limit: 16 , Fee: $30

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at 201 N. Hudson St. Silver City at 10 am to carpool to the Mogollon Box Day Use Area.

Difficulty level: moderate

Participants in this field trip will learn about historical weather patterns and runoff on the Gila River and its watershed, as well as how climate change is expected to impact the magnitude, frequency, and nature of flow along the Gila. Drawing on information from the New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources Bulletin 164 (Climate Change in New Mexico Over the Next 50 Years: Impacts on Water Resources) and The Nature Conservancy’s past and ongoing work on the Gila (e.g., Gila River Flow Needs Assessment), this field trip will involve a guided hike to the U.S. Geological Survey Stream Gage upstream of the Mogollon Box Day Use Area. On this hike, we will discuss all things water: how water flows are monitored, how shallow groundwater along the Gila River is being studied, and how climate change may impact the Gila River in the next 50 - 100 years. 

Plan on a beautiful 3.6-mile round-trip hike. Please bring bring sunscreen, a sun hat, plenty of water, lunch and snacks.

Family-Friendly Hike along the Wild Gila River with Luke Koenig - 2 SPOTS LEFT!

Sunday, September 29th, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. Participant limit: 25. Fee: Free, however registration required. 

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at 201 N. Hudson St. at 9:45 am. From there we will carpool and caravan to the Gila River Bird Sanctuary Trail, about a 40 minute drive one way that requires some driving on a well graded-dirt road suitable for any vehicle.

Difficulty: easy

Join us on this family-friendly hike along the Gila River upstream of the Gila Middle Box, a reach proposed for federal designation as a Wild and Scenic River. The Gila River is a special place: not only is it the last remaining undammed, mainstem river in New Mexico, but along its banks is found the most representative cottonwood forest, or bosque, left in the southwest. Cottonwood trees, dependent on naturally flooding desert rivers, are the foundation for much of the rest of the desert riparian ecosystem, providing shade and stabilizing the riverbank. Countless native plants and animals depend on their presence.

Come hike and play under the canopy of this amazing forest and along the free-flowing river that gives it life. This is an easy, mostly flat, hike suitable for all ages.

The hike is approximately 1.5 miles roundtrip. We will hike slowly and as a group to a beautiful riverside turnaround point, and stop for lunch. After lunch, we will hike back to the parking lot, and expect to be back in Silver City by around 2pm.

This hike is free and a free lunch will also be provided to all participants with registration.

Please bring plenty of water, a small backpack or bag to hold your water and free lunch, sunglasses, hat, sunscreen and appropriate footwear.

Native Plants of the Gila Wilderness with Donna Stevens and Megan Saenz - FULL - send an email to gilariverfest@gmail.com to be added to the waiting list

Sunday, September 29, 7:00 am – 3:00 pm; Participants: 10; Fee: Free, however registration required.

Meet at the Murray Ryan Visitor Center at 201 N. Hudson St. at 6:45 am. We will carpool to the trailhead because parking space is very limited. Travel time is 1.5 hours each way.

Difficulty: Easy

This hike parallels beautiful, lush Sapillo Creek as it heads downstream toward the Gila River. Participants will see many of the Gila’s common native riparian species, such as narrowleaf cottonwood, grape, walnut, willow, box elder, ash, alder, and false indigo bush. The hike also features semi-riparian and upland species, including three species of juniper, ponderosa pine, dogbane, chamisa, three-leaf sumac, gray oak, honeysuckle, New Mexico locust, New Mexico olive, banana yucca, and many more. The group will check out two lovely, small riverine wetlands that host cattail, horsetail, sedges, and other aquatics. Along the way, Gila National Forest botanist Donna Stevens will discuss identification of common native and invasive species and riparian ecology. Megan Saenz from the Gila National Forest Wilderness District, will discuss the value of Wilderness, and more. Participants will receive a plant handout to aid in species identification.

Please bring plenty of water, snacks, lunch, sunscreen, and hiking poles (for stability at stream crossings). Please wear a hat, long pants (to avoid one small patch of poison ivy), and shoes that can get wet. (Optional: binoculars, and dry shoes and socks to change into.) This out-and-back hike is 2 miles round trip, with 6 shallow stream crossings (3 each way), uneven terrain, and minimal elevation gain.

New Earth Project Site Visit, Bioreactor Tour with Mike and Carol Fugagli 

Sunday, September 29th 9:00 am -11:00 am; Participant limit: 30 Fee: FREE

Difficulty: Easy

Directions: Meeting location will be at the New Earth Project site along San Vicente Creek. From Gough Park in Silver City take Hudson St. ( Highway 90) south to Ridge Road. Turn left on Ridge Road and then left on Mobile Drive. Signs at the end of the pavement will direct you to parking at the New Earth Project site. See map below.

Silver City, like many small mountain communities in the American southwest, is directly in the crosshairs of climate change. To have a livable future, not only do we need to reduce current carbon emissions, but carbon drawdown from the atmosphere is a necessary component in all climate models. To respond to this emergency, the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance launched the New Earth Project, focusing on carbon sequestration, food security, fertilizer and pesticide replacement, soil health, food waste reduction, and landfill methane reduction. The centerpiece of this project is an innovative technology: Johnson-Su composting. Johnson-Su composting is a static, aerobic composting system that specializes in the production of a microbially diverse, fungal rich compost that can greatly increase the soil’s potential to sequester carbon, increase water retention, fix nitrogen, and increase plant growth and food production while greatly reducing the need and high costs associated with nitrogen/phosphorus fertilizers and pesticides. The New Earth Project’s Johnson-Su bioreactors are highly replicable using food waste from school cafeterias, and shredded woody biomass acquired from urban silviculture and local forest thinning projects. This program is implemented in tandem with a grade school curriculum and youth employment plan. On this field trip, we will demonstrate how a Johnson-Su bioreactor is filled and describe how it works, discuss how we make biochar using the Ring of Fire, and visit a greenhouse heated with a biochar energy system.

San Vicente Creek Restoration Tour with Van Clothier and Scott Zager - ONLY 6 SPOTS LEFT!

Sunday, September 29th; 9:00 am - 11:00 am Participant limit: 15, Fee: $30

Meet at 9 am at the cul-de-sac at the bottom of Mobile Drive in Silver City.

Directions: From the Murray Ryan Visitor Center proceed south for 1.2 miles on Hudson St./Hwy 90S. At the top of the hill, turn left onto Ridge Rd. In about 0.2 mile, take the first left onto Mobile Drive. Proceed down the hill for a half mile and park along the cul-de-sac and meet tour leaders at the Mobile Dr. trailhead kiosk.

Difficulty: Moderate

Join Stream Dynamics owner Van Clothier and Gila Resources Information Project’s plant ecologist Scott Zager for this tour of the San Vicente Creek River Stewardship project. Participants will tour San Vicente Creek and its tributary, Agave Arroyo, to observe ongoing efforts to restore the ecological balance of this unique riparian zone located in the heart of Silver City. Home to a native fishery and 200 bird species, including the state threatened Mexican black hawk and recently-observed federally threatened yellow-billed cuckoo, San Vicente Creek drains the 38-square mile Silver City Watershed. Restoration efforts aim to improve water quality, enhance wildlife habitat, and reduce riparian fire risk.

Please bring a hat, sunscreen, water, and appropriate hiking shoes. Feel free to bring your binoculars. The creek will be crossed at least twice.