Gila National Forest to close 4.5 miles of Road 141 for summer
South Fork Campground also to be closed for bridge replacement project
Release Date: Apr 21, 2025
Reserve, NM, Apr. 21, 2025—Gila National Forest, Reserve Ranger District has closed approximately 4.5 miles of Forest Road 141 (Reserve Beaverhead Road) will be closed from May 12 through October 31 while a contractor removes and replaces the South Fork Negrito Creek bridge, located just east of South Fork Campground. Forest Road 141 will be closed from its intersection with Forest Road 503 (Catron County Road C-019, Rainy Mesa) to its intersection with Forest Road 165/4044A (Eckleberger Canyon). South Fork Campground will also be closed for the duration of the project. A forest closure order will be in effect through October 31, 2025, unless it is rescinded sooner.
Forest Road 94 (Cox Canyon Road) from Apache Creek, New Mexico, 12 miles north of Reserve is the recommended detour for traffic headed to locations east of the closure. The forest roads crew recently installed new culverts and conducted other road maintenance on Forest Road 94 to improve it for increased traffic. New Mexico Highway 159 (Bursum Road) from U.S. Highway 180 south of Alma, NM, is a rough, single-lane route across steep terrain that can provide another option to the Willow Creek area for those with high clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The South Negrito Creek bridge was originally constructed in 1959 and due to its advanced age and deteriorated condition, needs to be replaced in order to maintain access for recreation, land management activities, logging and other commercial uses, and general traffic. The new bridge will be longer, to meet modern flood design standards, and more cost effective to maintain. For more information, contact Maribeth Pecotte at [email protected] or 575-388-8211.
About the Forest Service: The USDA Forest Service has for more than 100 years brought people and communities together to answer the call of conservation. Grounded in world-class science and technology– and rooted in communities–the Forest Service connects people to nature and to each other. The Forest Service cares for shared natural resources in ways that promote lasting economic, ecological, and social vitality. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, maintains the largest wildland fire and forestry research organizations in the world. The Forest Service also has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 900 million forested acres within the U.S., of which over 130 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.