Trails Overview
Heavy in landscape variety and delightfully rough around the edges, Silver City and the surrounding Gila are a highlight of southern New Mex.
Though perhaps an over-simplification of the complex meeting of ecological zones, our attempt to bundle and differentiate our local trail systems is below.
Right in town
Boston Hill
Over 10 miles of trails zig-zag through the high-desert vegetation of an old mining district. Seek out the Blue Loop from one of the 5 trailheads that surround this open space. Great views of town and the surrounding mountains and plains. The soil here drains quickly and offers some of the first rideable trail after snows and rain fall.
San Vicente Creek
Underrated, cottonwood-laden, riparian beauty flowing right through downtown. A trail follows the creek beginning one block from our shop. Choose between smooth and easy singletrack, rocky technical trail, or even wide e-bike friendly railroad grade south of the Hwy 90 bridge.
Within 30 minutes of Silver
Fort Bayard Trails
Want easier, flowier trails in the grasslands? Look no further. You can do the easy 3 mile Dragonfly loop for wide-open views, petroglyphs, and riparian goodness.
Drive a little further to the Big Tree TH and get a little higher up and into the junipers and oaks.
More adventure? Take the Woodhaul Wagon Rd way up into the pines around Bear Canyon. Find some elk and bear, likely seeing not another human soul.
Little Walnut / Bear Mountain
There are so many trails out here, and let’s be real, the signage can be a little confusing. Don’t let that deter you, the trees are amazing, the views vast, and you feel like you can go forever.
Some highlights to note are hiking up Gomez Peak or 80 Mountain, enjoying the newer tread of the Continental Divide Tr around Little Walnut Rd, and the rougher reaches of CDT between Bear Mountain and LS Mesa.
Bonus points for the short summit routes up Bear Mountain or Mccomas Peak.
Signal Peak area
Between 7,400-9,000 ft, this area holds the snow in the winter and brings cooler temps in the summer. The classic hike here is going up Signal Peak from either the Hwy 15 TH or the shorter route via CDT TH on the saddle way up Signal Peak Rd.
Tadpole Ridge Tr offers superb views to the North.
The trailrunning is amazing in this area, and some extremely remote routes can be cooked up starting right at the highway.
The Burros and Jacks Peak
On the southern edge of the Gila, the Burros are the last bit of forest respite before the low desert surrounding Lordsburg. Saddlerock Canyon holds good mountain biking through craggy washes; 2.6” or greater tires recommended here. There is rock climbing out here as well, decently documented on mountainproject.com.
Jack’s Peak summiting along the CDT is a great experience hiking from ginormous oaks at the TH into the Ponderosa Pines at the summit. Want proper steep mountain biking? There is a Jack’s Peak loop linked in our MTB Routes.
The CDT south of the Jack’s Peak TH offers really fun and rolling trail that dries quickly after rain and snow.