The Weminuche Wilderness is a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

in southwest

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

managed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Nationa ...

as part of the

San Juan National Forest The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezu ...

on the west side of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

and the

Rio Grande National Forest Rio Grande National Forest is a 1.86 million-acre (7,530 km²) U.S. National Forest located in southwestern Colorado. The forest encompasses the San Luis Valley, which is the world's largest agricultural alpine valley, as well as one of the ...

on the east side of the divide. The Weminuche Wilderness was designated by Congress in 1975, and expanded by the Colorado Wilderness Acts of 1980 and 1993. It is located southeast of the town of Silverton, northeast of

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

, and west of South Fork. At , it is the largest wilderness area in the state of Colorado. Elevation in the wilderness ranges from along the

Animas River Animas River (''On-e-mas''; es, Río de las Ánimas) is a river in the western United States, a tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River System. The Animas-La Plata Water Project was completed in 2015. The project pumps w ...

to at the summit of

Windom Peak Windom Peak is the highest summit of the Needle Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent fourteener is located in the Weminuche Wilderness of San Juan National Forest, northeast by north ( bearing 32°) of the ...

. The Weminuche Wilderness is dissected by a narrow north-south corridor within the Animas River Gorge through which the

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a ...

travels between Silverton and Durango. To the west of this corridor are the West Needle Mountains. To the east lie the Needle Mountains and the bulk of the wilderness. Two train stops within the gorge allow hikers access into the Needle Mountains. The Wilderness was named after the Weminuche Native Americans.

Geology

The surface geology of the Weminuche Wilderness is characterized by two geologic providences. The western third of the wilderness is within the Needle Mountains Proterozoic complex while the remainder of the wilderness is within the San Juan volcanic field. The

Laramide Orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the ...

, which began approximately 80 million years ago in the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

, resulted in significant regional uplift. A dome wide lifted rock more than in the western third of the wilderness. Pushed up were

Proterozoic The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided i ...

igneous and metamorphic rock and overlying, younger

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

sedimentary rock, as well as

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

volcanic rock. Erosion has removed the overlying rock and today the Proterozoic rock is exposed, forming the high, jagged, Needle Mountains. The highest peaks in the wilderness are in the Needle Mountains. These peaks include three

fourteeners In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any single ...

Mount Eolus Mount Eolus is a high mountain summit of the Needle Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located in the Weminuche Wilderness of San Juan National Forest, northeast by north ( bearing 29°) of the City of ...

, and

Sunlight Peak Sunlight Peak is a high mountain summit of the Needle Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The fourteener is located in the Weminuche Wilderness of San Juan National Forest, northeast by north ( bearing 32°) of the City ...

. Eolus granite is a common rock in the Needle Mountains and these fourteeners are composed of this

intrusive igneous rock Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March ...

. To the east lies the San Juan volcanic field. While this region was also uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny, additional mountain building occurred as

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

volcanism deposited lava and ash, which in some places was over thick. These volcanic rocks overlay

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

sedimentary rock, which is exposed in only a few places on the southern edge of the wilderness. The Weminuche Wilderness was

glaciated A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and the current landscape is dominated by glacial landforms including horns,

arête An arête ( ) is a narrow ridge of rock which separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...

cirque A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landf ...

tarns A tarn (or corrie loch) is a proglacial mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. Etymology The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small mount ...

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice sh ...

s, and

U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

Flora and fauna

At lower elevations, particularly along the southern side of the wilderness, are montane forests with stands of

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

and

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three v ...

and thickets of

Gambel oak ''Quercus gambelii'', with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak. ...

. Higher and widespread through the wilderness are subalpine forests dominated by

Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...

and

subalpine fir ''Abies lasiocarpa'', the subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain fir, is a western North American fir tree. Description ''Abies lasiocarpa'' is a medium-sized evergreen conifer with a very narrow conic crown, growing to tall, exceptionally , with a t ...

. Stands of

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (C ...

occur in the wilderness on historically disturbed sites in both the montane and subalpine zones. Above

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

, which in the wilderness is at an elevation of about , is

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

dominated by grasses and forbs, along with extensive thickets of

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

. Infestations of

spruce beetle ''Dendroctonus rufipennis'', the spruce beetle, is a species of bark beetle native to British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Northern Manitoba, the Yukon, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Maine. They are known ...

have ravaged the Engelmann spruce within the wilderness. Substantial outbreaks began in the late 1990s and have general moved from southeast to northwest through the wilderness. As of 2017, over of forest had been impacted. In places, particularly in older stands, the kill has been nearly 100%. The wilderness is known for its herds of elk. Other mammals include

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subsp ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

, marmots, and

pikas A pika ( or ; archaically spelled pica) is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal found in Asia and North America. With short limbs, very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative, the rabbit, but wi ...

. Also present are black bears,

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

, re-introduced

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the ...

s, and

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological nich ...

Mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs an ...

s have been introduced in the wilderness and are now common at higher elevations, particularly in the Needle Mountains. There are concerns over the environmental impact of these non-native goats, particularly their harm to native bighorn sheep populations. Current management in the Weminuche Wilderness allows the mountain goats to persist. This is in contrast to active efforts to eliminate or reduce non-native mountain goat populations in other protected areas such as

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is an American national park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Grand Teton ...

, and

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

Hiking

Travel through the wilderness is limited to those on foot and horseback. There are nearly of interconnected trails in the wilderness, which provide for multiple options for both day and multi-day trips. Forming the backbone to this network is the

Continental Divide Trail The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (in short Continental Divide Trail (CDT)) is a United States National Scenic Trail with a length measured by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition of between the U.S. border with Chihuahua, Mexico ...

, which traverses the wilderness from Wolf Creek Pass in the southeast to Stony Pass in the northwest. This network of trails is accessed from over 30 trailheads located around the periphery of the wilderness. Two of these trailheads are the Needleton and Elk Park stops on the

, which provide the most direct access to the highly visited Needle Mountains.Trailhead and trail information is available a
Colorado Trail Explorer
This includes information on th
Needle Creek Trail
and th
Continental Divide Trail
Off-trail distances can also be computed. Accessed 28 March 2021

Chicago Basin

The most popular trail in the wilderness is the Needle Creek Trail (Forest Trail 504) which begins at the Needleton train stop and leads southeast up into

Chicago Basin Chicago Basin comprises the upper portion of the Needle Creek watershed in the Needle Mountains (Colorado), a subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the US State of Colorado. It lies within the Weminuche Wilderness, part of the San Juan National ...

. From Chicago Basin, where camping is permitted, climbers can reach three fourteeners (Windom Peak, Mount Eolus, and Sunlight Peak) and several

thirteener In mountaineering in the United States, a thirteener (abbreviated 13er) is a mountain that exceeds above mean sea level, similar to the more familiar "fourteeners," which exceed . In most instances, "thirteeners" refers only to those peaks betwee ...

s via day hikes. Chicago Basin sees approximately 10,000 visitor use days each year, most seeking to climb one or more fourteeners, and the area can be crowded. Environmental impacts have resulted in use restrictions in the Chicago Basin area that go beyond regulations applied to the wilderness as a whole.

Continental Divide Trail

Beyond the Chicago Basin area, trails in the wilderness see much less traffic and solitude can be found. The Continental Divide Trail (CDT) is a

National Scenic Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...

that stretches from Mexico to Canada and passes through the length of the Weminuche Wilderness. The CDT enters the wilderness at

Wolf Creek Pass Wolf Creek Pass is a high mountain pass on the Continental Divide, in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. It is the route through which U.S. Highway 160 passes from the San Luis Valley into southwest Colorado on its way to New Mexico and Ariz ...

U.S. Highway 160 U.S. Route 160 (US 160) is a 1,465 mile (2,358 km) long east–west United States highway in the Midwestern and Western United States. The western terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 89 (Arizona), US 89 five miles (8 km) ...

. The trail then weaves northwest through the wilderness to

Stony Pass Stony Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Moun ...

on San Juan County Road 3 near Silverton. Following the crest of the San Juan Mountains, this trail offers hikers and those on horseback expansive views of nearby peaks and distant mountain ranges. This is a high path with an average elevation of , and it rarely dips below tree line. Less than a quarter of the trail passes through forest. More common are long stretches across alpine tundra, rocky slopes and ridges, and subalpine meadows. The highpoint of the trail is at on the ridge below South River Peak and the lowest point is where the trail drops to the headwaters of the Los Pinos River at . Altogether, there is of elevation gain and of elevation loss on a southeast-to-northwest trip. The Stony Pass Trailhead is on a four-wheel drive road and has limited parking. To facilitate transportation, there are other nearby trailheads that can be used to exit the Weminuche Wilderness. These include the Elk Park train stop, the Molas Pass Trailhead, the Highland Mary Trailhead, and the Silverton Trailhead just outside the town of Silverton.

Gallery

File:Continental divide trail in Weminuche Wilderness.jpg, Looking north on the

between the Palisade Meadows cutoff and the Knife Edge. File:Weminuche Wilderness mine shack 2010.jpg, Abandoned mine shack near the

. File:Weminuche Wilderness hills.JPG, Grassy hills near Lemon Reservoir.

References

External links

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad: Wilderness Access
{{Authority control Wilderness areas of Colorado Rio Grande National Forest San Juan National Forest San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Protected areas of Hinsdale County, Colorado Protected areas of La Plata County, Colorado Protected areas of Mineral County, Colorado Protected areas of San Juan County, Colorado Protected areas of Rio Grande County, Colorado Protected areas established in 1975 1975 establishments in Colorado Parks in Archuleta County, Colorado