Silver City Active and Adventure Travel Guide

Silver City is the gateway to the 3.3-million-acre Gila National Forest, the main unit of which stretches north halfway to Gallup and from the Arizona border east, almost to Truth or Consequences. The forest includes the Mogollon, Black, San Francisco, Pinos Altos, and Diablo mountain ranges, as well as the half-million-acre Gila Wilderness, dedicated in 1924 and the first in the country.
Silver City is located near the southern end of the nearly 3,000-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, which follows the Continental Divide from Mexico up into Canada and passes through some of the West’s most beautiful parks and mountains.
The relatively traffic-free rolling roads of the Silver City area make for excellent road biking, and a number of organized rides and races are held here annually. Enjoy quiet riverside roads through shady canyons, or head up into alpine solitude or out onto high-desert blacktop.
The European-style Tour of the Gila is a popular annual five-day competition that includes the demanding Silver City-to-Mogollon and Gila Monster road races, as well as the Downtown Silver City Criterium and other road races and time trials.

Silver City Travel Guide

Silver City (pop. 10,545) is an old mining town, in the foothills of the Pinos Altos Range of the Mogollon Mountains, and gateway to the Gila Wilderness and the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Early Native Americans mined turquoise from these hills, and by 1804, Spanish settlers were digging for copper. In 1870, a group of prospectors discovered silver, and the rush was on. In 10 short months, the newly christened Silver City grew from a single cabin to more than 80 buildings. Early visitors included Billy the Kid, Judge Roy Bean, and William Randolph Hearst. Read More

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Silver City Active and Adventure Travel Guide