Aldo Leopold Wilderness

Named for one of history's most influential conservationists, the Aldo Leopold Wilderness protects the roughest, wildest portions of one of New Mexico's roughest, wildest corners: the Black Range. It lies just east of Forest Service Road 150 from the even bigger Gila Wilderness. The Wilderness drapes the southern spine and subsidiary ridges of the north-south-running Black Range, mostly composed of Tertiary-era volcanics. McKnight Mountain rears to 10,165 feet in the southern portion, marking the highest summit in the range. The topography is rugged, consisting of sharp ridges and broad benches broken by deep canyons. The Continental Divide hugs a portion of the Black Range crest to 10,015-foot Reeds Peak, where it curves southwestward out of the Wilderness. Major drainages include the Mimbres River, Diamond Creek, and the headwater streams of Seco Creek; some springs and creeks are seasonal, while others are perennial. From canyon riparian communities of willows, cottonwoods, boxelder, and Arizona sycamore, slopes rise through juniper, pinyon, ponderosa pine, and oak woodlands to about the 7,000-foot level. Higher montane and subalpine forests include Engelmann and blue spruce, white and subalpine fir, and quaking aspen. Wildlife is rich: lizards, snakes, rodents and bats among the small creatures, and gray foxes, bobcats, ringtails, coyotes, black bears, mountain lions, mule deer and elk among the larger ones. The Wilderness also falls within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery area for Mexican gray wolves, first reintroduced into the region in 1998. The Wilderness is named for Aldo Leopold, a pioneering ecologist and conservationist best known for his seminal 1949 text on the "land ethic," A Sand County Almanac (and Sketches Here and There). In his early career, Leopold worked for the Forest Service in the Southwest and was instrumental in the designation of the country's (and world's) first wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness, which adjoins the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. A 33-mile-plus section of the Continental Divide Trail traverses the Wilderness, and there are also many miles of additional hiking trails.