Southern New Mexico Explorer: Morgan Creek- Gila National Forest

Lake Mountain

Morgan Creek Road

Mud Spring Mountain

IMPORTANT UPDATE (6/22): The Black Fire has burned through much of the Morgan Creek valley. It is likely to appear vastly different from what is pictured and described here.

We had beautiful camping trip here back in '04. We found one of the nice dispersed spots off of the road that follows Morgan Creek (FR 732 off of FR 157), but if you go, be careful not to camp in one of the private property inholdings. We went in mid- September and there were wildflowers everywhere. We did a hike that starts out going south from Morgan Creek then follows South Palomas Creek and then on to Marshall Creek on FT 110 where we turned around a ways upstream from the intersection with the Spud Patch Trail (FT 111). Along the way one of my dogs caught a rabbit. Fortunately it was the dog with very few teeth and we were able to convince her to let it go.
It was a pretty warm still and the creeks were already drying out that year, so we were having to ration water between ourselves and our dogs, luckily the springs that supply tiny Marshall Creek were flowing on that hot, late summer day.

The drive here from Las Cruces is at least three and a half hours. FS 157 (the northern half of this road starts near Chloride, the discontinuous southern half starts near Kingston) may not be suitable for some vehicles and/or trailers. We still were using a camper top with a large tent attached to it at the time, and although I've brought our little trailer to nearby Circle Seven Creek (check out October '07 blog), I'm reluctant to try and get it to Morgan Creek.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Parts of these hikes may be within the Silver Fire burn area (June, 2013) .