Winter Gateway 2022

‘Explore The Wild’: Your GATEWAY
Online is discovergilacounty.com
Gateway magazine
is your quarterly
update and invite
to visit Gila County and
explore scenic spots along
the Copper Corridor.
For the most up-to-date,
thorough and comprehensive
intel about where to stay
and what to do while you’re
here, bookmark discovergilacounty.com
as a browser
favorite, and connect on the
award-winning website’s
companion Facebook and
Instagram pages to see enticing
photos of cobalt-blue
lakes, tree-lined hiking paths
– and where to find local,
family-owned restaurants
for a unique taste of this region.
Launched by Gila County’s
Board of Supervisors
two years ago, the stylish
website’s a thorough portal
to outdoor adventure ranging
from the tall, cool pines
of the Rim Country towns of
Payson and Star Valley down
through our Copper Corridor
heritage here in Globe and
Miami – including travel and
tourism information about
all three Apache Nations:
San Carlos, Tonto and White
Mountain. Wilderness areas,
hiking trails, singular local
restaurants -- and the area’s
most comprehensive event
calendar, too.
Centrally-located Gila
County is truly the heart of
Arizona, with 53,500 residents
and 4,796 square miles
of desert, canyonlands and
lakes. Bookmark discovergilacounty.com
as a browser
favorite; you’ll find planned
itineraries for three-dayweekend
trips that hit the
highlights for shopping, relaxed
hikes, Native American
culture and history, and
outdoor adventure.
Gila County has seven
wilderness areas: Hell’s
Gate and the Mazatzal canyons
and forests offer scenery
that’s approachable yet
remote enough for peace,
quiet and solitude. Arizona’s
majestic saguaro cacti? See
and photograph these desert
icons at our lowest elevations.
Gila County includes
Sonoran Desert at 2,000 feet
above sea level, proceeding
up to stately ponderosa pine
forest (the largest stand of
ponderosa pines on the planet!).
Gila County lures outdoor
enthusiasts choosing a
place to live, work and enjoy
the best mix of Arizona’s
desert, mountains and lakes.
Where to Stay?
discovergilacounty.com
lists our biggest hotels, of
course – but gives equal
space to bed-and-breakfast
lodging in Pine-Strawberry,
Payson, Globe and Young.
Where to eat while you’re
here? Restaurants are all listed,
too; from family-owned
Mexican restaurants of
Globe-Miami to unique eateries
in Hayden and Star
Valley, a popular brewery in
Pine, and vineyard-wineries
in Young and Globe.
Looking for a half-day
hike, or a two-three day
backpacking adventure? Explore
the Mogollon Rim - a
topographic and geological
wonder that extends about
200 miles across central Arizona.
It forms the southern
edge of the Colorado Plateau
- providing outdoor adventure
to campers, hikers,
mountain bikers, photographers,
bird-watchers and
hunters; discovergilacounty.
com is your guide to hiking
trails, and nearby lodging.
Don’t miss Tonto Natural
Bridge, between the towns of
Payson and Pine, which became
an Arizona State Park
in 1990; now thousands of
visitors marvel each year at
the largest travertine bridge
in the world and the beauty
of Pine Creek Canyon.
The high desert community
of Pleasant Valley is a serene
scene of peace and quiet
today – but in the 1880s it
was the origin of a range war
that’s among the most famous
(and deadly) feuds in
American history. The Pleasant
Valley War, also called
the Tonto Basin Feud or the
Tonto Basin War, matched
the cattle-herding Grahams
against the sheep-herding
Tewksburys.
28 Gateway to the Copper Corridor 2022