| Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
3,053 acres (4.8 square miles)
How to get there
The Corral Creek roadless area is located along the north
side of Interstate 70 from Vail to Officer’s Gulch.
- The
Gore Range Trail (60) begins at a trailhead directly across I-70 from the entrance
to Copper Mountain Ski Area. This trail provides access through Corral Creek RA
into the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area.
- From
Vail Pass, you can hike through an underpass to access the Corral Creek Trail
(41), which climbs toward Uneva Peak.
- This
unit also contains the trailheads for the Deluge Creek (2014) and Gore Creek
(2015) trails into the Eagles Nest Wilderness. These are accessed from the Gore
Creek Campground near East Vail.
- The
USGS 7 1/2’ quads for the Corral Creek RA are Vail East, Red Cliff, and Vail
Pass.
Setting
This area occupies a narrow strip of land between I-70 and
the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area. The terrain consists of steep west and south
facing hillsides above Black Gore Creek north of Vail Pass, and Tenmile Creek
to the south. Many avalanche paths cross the unit. The bulk of the area is
densely-forested with spruce and fir, as well as some aspen in the Gore Creek
campground area. Corral Creek is the major creek in the unit, and flows from
Uneva Peak. The elevation ranges from 8,600 feet near Gore Creek, to 11,900 on
the SW slopes of Uneva Peak.
What’s special about it?
The primary significance of this area is as a buffer between
the extremely busy I-70 corridor and the primitive Eagles Nest Wilderness. As a
sub-alpine roadless strip, it plays an important role in connecting the Eagles
Nest Wilderness to the Ptarmigan Hill roadless area to the south. This is part
of an extremely vital north-south migration corridor for wildlife, particularly
the endangered lynx, as well as bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and elk. A
“wildlife bridge” has been proposed to span I-70 near Vail Pass that would link
the Ptarmigan Hill and Corral Creek roadless areas.
The area is also important for providing access to five
trails that enter the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area from I-70. Polk Creek and
Corral Creek are important fisheries for the imperiled Colorado River cutthroat
trout. In addition this roadless area acts a scenic corridor, especially for
the Tenmile-Vail Pass National Recreation Trail that passes along the NW
boundary of the unit.
Potential threats
No threats to roadless qualities are currently known.
Other info
This is one of 12 roadless areas that are contiguous with
the Eagles Nest Wilderness area, and together form a roadless complex of over
168,000 acres (262 square miles). Conservation groups have identified an
additional 55 roadless acres in the area near East Vail.
Read Kate and Carl Cocchiarella's letter on behalf of Corral Creek, East Vail and Game Creek RAs.
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