On June 3, 1924, 755,000 acres were set aside by the U.S. Forest Service—the first designated wilderness in the world.

As we traveled into the Wilderness, some 45 miles on very narrow and curvy roads, our journey ended at Cliff Dweller Canyon.

As our printed material describes, we are standing in a caldera, the collapsed remains of a giant volcano. 28 million years ago, the canyon and caves resulted from a steady erosion process. Approximately 1000 years ago, some of the Mogollon people built their homes in these caves.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. It is the only place in the National Park Service that interrupts and preserves part of the Mogollon Cultural History.

We start our 1 ½ mile trek to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, hiking along the exact same path used by these ancient peoples.

“In order to assure that an increasing population accompanied by expanding settlements and growing mechanization does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.”