Withington Wilderness is a nineteen-thousand-acre protected backcountry on the eastern slope of the San Mateo Mountains in western New Mexico, within the Cibola National Forest’s Magdalena Ranger District. Centered on Mount Withington, it was added in December 1980 to the National Wilderness Preservation System under the New Mexico Wilderness Act. Managed to remain undeveloped and closed to mechanized transport, it includes deep canyons, high ridgelines, and vegetation ranging from mixed conifer forest to pinyon and juniper. Its wildlife includes mountain lion, black bear, elk, mule deer, coyote, turkey, and quail, and part of it provides critical habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl.