Gila National Forest, Continental Divide

Leaving Silver City, I began to notice the first isolated copses of trees dotting the desert. I felt my legs ache as I headed uphill, and as the incline grew, the air got a little cooler, and the vegetation became lusher and greener. Soon, the little isolated copses of trees got larger and thicker until they formed the forest. With that appeared that most precious of commodities in New Mexico - shade! And then, as I heard the telltale rush of a river nearby, I found there was water!

I had arrived in the Gila National Forest, a beautiful and remote stretch of woodland dominated by conifers, with majestic Ponderosa pines lining the tops of the hills and the valleys full of aspens, oaks, and junipers. Flowers and ferns lined the soft pine-needle-strewn undergrowth, and songbirds flitted between the trees.  

I noticed a hummingbird hovering next to the bright red flowers of an Indian paintbrush bush. From its burnt sunset-coloured plumage and white throat-patch, I identified it as a rufous, one of the most interesting species in this sweet order of bee-sized birds.

The rufous is tiny, growing to about 3 in (8 cm) in length, with a wingspan of about 4 in (10 cm). Even compared to other hummingbirds, it’s small. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in tenacity. Famous among birders for its aggression, the rufous will often bully other, bigger hummingbirds, fighting them for access to flowers. If it’s successful, it will feed on the nectar, hovering next to the flowers thanks to the incredible speed of its wings, which beat 75 times a second (and over 200 times a second during courtship).

They also follow one of the longest migration paths in the animal kingdom. Each year, they travel 4000mi (6437 km) - twice across the entire western United States, from their wintering patches in sunny Mexico to their breeding grounds in Canada. Almost makes my thru-hike seem like a walk in the park.

I bade the hummingbird good luck on its journey, then came out of the forest and up through the red sandstone mesas and canyons that lay on its outskirts. I crossed a small spring stream and headed uphill until I arrived at the Gila Cliff Dwellings, a series of stone houses built into a cliff’s alcove by the Mogollon people about 700 years ago (see the Gila Cliff Dwellings local spot on your map nearby for more information an a picture gallery).

After exploring the streets and houses of the national monument, I headed through the lush canyons around the Gila River until the trees started to thin out again. Soon, I was back among the cacti, in the hot, shadeless desert, the last stage of my journey before arriving at a place named Pie Town, famous for, you guessed it, its pie shops.