Unit 22 is a small unit—about 393 square miles straddling the Grant and Catron county line on the west side of the Gila—but it's really two completely different hunts stacked on top of each other. The north end is the western tail of the Gila Wilderness: high, rocky, roadless country climbing toward 10,000-plus feet, spruce and fir up top dropping into ponderosa and then pinyon-juniper as you come down. The south end is the opposite—flat, dry, barren desert grassland with scattered conifers down in the arroyos, and most of that low country is private. US 180 runs the eastern boundary and is your main artery, with primitive roads peeling off it westward toward the wilderness; SR 159 fences the north edge, and SR 174 and 193 poke in around Glenwood. The unit is just shy of 70 percent public, but the public and private dont split evenly—the good public ground is mostly up north in the high country, and the southern desert is where the locked gates are. What makes 22 worth talking about is the wilderness itself. Because the north end is roadless, a lot of elk-tag holders never set foot in it—they look at the map, see no roads, and go hunt somewhere with a truck. That leaves it as genuine backpacker-or-horseback country, the kind of place where being willing to walk in three or four miles puts you alone with bulls that dont see much pressure. It's a physical hunt and you need to be in shape to glass the remote stuff, but the trade is solitude that's getting rare in the Gila. Glenwood is your staging town for fuel and a room, and Silver City to the south is the real full-service stop. Cell service is gone the second you leave US 180 for the dirt, and its gone for good once you cross into the wilderness, so go in with paper or downloaded maps and a plan to self-rescue. Honest knock: the south half is a lot of unhuntable private desert, so the unit is smaller than its acreage makes it sound, and if you want the good part your hiking for it.