This is what it sounds like to explore New Mexico's Hila wilderness on horseback.

On a recent assignment for National Geographic, I got to venture deep into the Hila with

a photographer, podcast producer, and a backcountry guide. The Hila is a magical place filled with endless

canyons, towering ponderosa forests, and ancient cliff dwellings. It's also the nation's first official

wilderness area. Congress defines a wilderness as a place where natural ecosystems are left intact,

and humans are only temporary visitors. The idea of officially protecting wilderness can be

traced back to a young forest ranger and the death of a wolf. That story begins in the early 1900s

when a young forest ranger named Aldo Leopold arrived in New Mexico to survey the land for the forest

service. The prevailing philosophy of forestry back then was to manage the land for the benefit of

the economy, thank farming, logging, mining, and grazing. Part of Leopold's job was to get rid of all

the predators, which were considered dangerous nuisances. But one day after shooting a female wolf,

the young forest ranger had a revelation. Aldo Leopold wrote about that experience years later.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.

I thought that because fewer wolves met more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters paradise.

But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such

of you. That encounter sent Leopold on a mission to change the way people thought about humans

in their place in the environment, and thanks to his efforts in 1924, the Helib became the first

officially recognized wilderness area. But his efforts weren't enough to save the wolves. Eventually,

they were hunted out of the entire southwest, and the Helib was missing a crucial piece of its ecosystem.

Okay, so cut to almost a century later, and here we are, the Nat Geocrew exploring those pristine

canyons that Leopold helped preserve, when one night, as we're sitting around a fire talking about

Aldo Leopold, I swear this is true, we heard an unmistakable sound rise out of the night.

...