| Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
Black Lake West: 895 acres (1.4 square miles)
Black Lake East: 749 acres (1.2 square miles)
TOTAL: 1,644 acres (2.6 square miles)
How to get there
The Black Lakes roadless areas are located two miles south
of Green Mountain Reservoir.
- The
road to Blue Lake and Black Lake is for private access only.
- Black
Lake West has no vehicular access, nor any trailheads, although the Gore Range
Trail (60) passes through its SE corner.
- Black
Lake East can be reached via Brush Creek Road (1695), which branches off of FS
30 at the SE end of Green Mountain Reservoir. This road ends at a trailhead
which provides non-motorized access into the Eagles Nest Wilderness. If you
turn right off of FS 1695 at a large, replanted clearcut, a little-used road
(high clearance) is cherry stemmed into the Black Lake East RA and ends at a
nice campsite. You can hike south from here to pick up the Gore Range Trail
(60).
- The
USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the Black Lakes RAs are Mount Powell and Squaw Creek.
Setting
The small Black Lakes RAs occupy gently-rolling slopes on
both sides of Black Creek. Black Lake West RA contains parts of the Otter Creek
drainage, while Black Lake East RA is primarily drained by Brush Creek. These
slopes are forested with stands of lodgepole pines and aspens; these are
interspersed with mountain shrub communities. The elevation ranges from 8,200
feet in Doig Gulch to 9,500 feet at the Wilderness boundary. Private land in
Black Creek divides these areas.
What’s special about it?
Because of their adjacency to wilderness, as well as public
access issues, these areas receive very few visitors, and opportunity for
solitude here is high. Although they are small, these areas provide a
mid-elevation buffer between the Eagles Nest Wilderness and private lands in
the vicinity of Blue River/Green Mountain Reservoir. This buffer limits
motorized trespassing into the Wilderness Area.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has identified Black Lake
East RA as critical big game winter range, and the area supports a large herd
of elk, and many deer.
Potential threats
The principal threats to these areas are illegal motorized
intrusion originating on private parcels to the north and east of these units,
and future timber sales. Clearcuts just to the SE of Black Lake East have
dramatically altered the landscape.
Other info
The Black Lakes RAs are two of 12 roadless areas contiguous
to the Eagles Nest Wilderness that, together with the wilderness, form a
roadless complex of over 168,000 acres (262 square miles!) In addition to
acreage included in the RA by the USFS, conservation groups have identified 457
more acres of roadless area on the southeast corner of Black Lake East RA. |
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