Gila Wilderness

via National Geographic Photo of the Day http://feeds.nationalgeographic.com/~r/ng/photography/photo-of-the-day/~3/_OVIkeZkNcg/

This rugged wilderness was the precursor to the 1964 Wilderness Act. Forty years before the act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson, 755,000 acres in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, including the Middle Fork of the Gila River, became the world’s first designated wilderness.

See more pictures from the September 2014 feature story “50 Years of Wilderness.”