Gila Lower Box Float
April 25-26, 2004
We put-in upstream of the gauging station at the Nichols Canyon BLM site before 1:00 PM, Sunday and began our maiden float down the canyon. The Gila Lower Box Wilderness Study Area is a BLM administered property on the Gila River near Virden, NM and the overnight trip covered about ten river miles, including the entire wilderness riparian area.
 Rocks just below White Rock Canyon. Photo by RC Helbock |
The canyon quickly narrowed and the water velocity increased as we passed the Blue Creek gauging station and other hydrological instrumentation. With the river running just below 300 cubic feet per second, it was a brisk ride down to our first stop at White Rock Canyon, entering from the south. We walked up the arroyo for a few minutes and climbed on the rocks below its mouth before continuing downstream.
The next two stops consisted of a failed attempt to penetrate the willow thickets at a south canyon opening and a break on the north bank at an interesting rocky area below Rimrock. In the late afternoon we investigated another small feeder canyon on the north side of the river just west of Rimrock. The rocky mouth was easily passable with fewer willows than most other tributary deltas thus far--a good place to stop for the night.
We made camp in a grassy clearing on the west bank of the wash about fifty yards upstream. The gravely dry riverbed ended abruptly another fifty yard above the campsite in a series of huge boulders forming an impressive cascading waterfall feature. We scaled the boulders as far as we could, squeezing at one point thorough a car window-size passage and ended up below an impassible wall, maybe seventy feet high. This was a beautiful area with a clinging garden, a lone shapely cottonwood tree and a large alcove-like cave. The water was flowing at a mere trickle over the towering wall but the falls would be magnificent in the monsoon.
 Aboriginal grinding station. Photo by RC Helbock |
On the east side of the canyon twenty feet above the riverbed exists a horizontal crack in the cliff face running a hundred feet or more. The crack forms a cave in which we discovered two grinding stations presumably made and used by the area's early human inhabitants. The mortar stones were amazingly still at their pestles, carved in the solid rock floor of the cave.
Ornithological sightings near camp consisted of cliff swallows, mourning dove, rock wren, turkey vultures, flycatchers, tanagers and orioles. Other fauna we encountered here during the day included a gopher snake and two diamondback rattlesnakes. By night we heard a great horned owl, night hawks, bats and a chorus of insects and bullfrogs.
 Petroglyph at mouth of Cottonwood Canyon. Photo by RC Helbock |
The next morning we were back on the river at a noticeably-lessened pace. The GPS was indicating speeds between three and four miles per hour for the most part. We briefly explored a high cliff wall on the south bank before heading out of the box canyon. As the deep canyon opens into a wide valley, we paddled into a bay formed by Cottonwood Canyon entering form the south. About a hundred yards upstream from the canyon mouth we were delighted to find a large petroglyph on the east side.
Heading up the canyon, sand and gravel give way to an imposing box canyon carved through solid rock. There was a large pool of water below the narrow canyon's rock face that revealed another large petroglyph on its west side. We hiked up the chasm until it widened near Cottonwood Spring, approximately one half mile upstream.
 Petroglyphs in Cottonwood Canyon. Photo by RCH |
Continuing down the Gila and out of the lower box, the ominous roar of the river falling was heard. We had arrived at a weir diverting part of the Gila River for irrigation. Following a brief survey of the site we let the rafts over the north side of the ten foot spillway on ropes. The obstacle may actually be navigable in higher water but don't take my word for it!
On the final leg before our take-out at the Highway 92 bridge east of Virden, both the river and valley widen considerably. Views of Canador Peak to the north dominate the scenery in an otherwise increasingly less interesting panorama. Our average speed dropped to under three miles per hour and our rafts were in frequent contact with the river bottom. Waterfowl were in abundance. It took one hour to drift nonstop from the weir to the bridge, where we ended our float.in the early afternoon.
Aside from an uncomfortably close encounter with one of the two diamondbacks, some bushwhacking scratches and sore upper bodies, the trip was relaxing and inspiring. We saw or heard no other people at any time. There were signs of recent visitors but the Gila Lower Box is relatively pristine, stunningly beautiful and unquestionably wild this day.
RC Helbock (rafting with fellow river rat, Steve
Richardson)
April 27, 2004
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