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Adoption Status: ADOPTED
6,613 acres (10.3 square miles)
How to get there
The Grizzly Creek roadless area is located 2 miles northeast
of Glenwood Springs. Approach the area from Interstate 70.
- About 2
miles east of Glenwood Springs, get off I-70 at No Name (Exit 119). At the end
of the short road, begin hiking up the No Name Trail (1847). You will pass
water diversion structures and a rock climbing area on the way into the
beautiful canyon. This trail follows No Name Creek north through the unit and
leads to the Transfer Trail Road (FS 602; 4WD) on Quartzite Ridge. The East No
Name Trail (1849) branches off and follows the creek of that name to Bowen Lake
Road (FS 631).
- About 5
miles east of Glenwood Springs, get off I-70 at Grizzly Creek (Exit 122?). Hike
up the Grizzly Creek Trail (2065) through the spectacular canyon. The trail
goes all the way to a meeting with the Broken Rib Trail (1849), which climbs
out of the creek east to Broken Rib Spring on the Coffeepot Road (FS 600).
- Conservtionists
identified a much larger Grizzly Creek roadless area than the USFS did. To
access the remaining “unofficial” roadless area, you may hike up Defiance Trail
from the Shoshone Exit on I-70, or to Hanging Lake or Dead Horse Trail (1851)
from the Hanging Lake Exit. You may also explore the area from the Coffeepot
Road (FS 600) which begins near Dotsero, by traveling the Dead Horse (FS 622;
4WD), Wagon Gulch (FS 623; 4WD), or Grizzly Jeep (FS 632; 4WD) Roads, all of
which branch south from FS 600. The nasty Transfer Trail Road (FS 602: 4WD)
climbs north from Glenwood Springs and connects the loop around the WRCC
roadless area.
- The
USGS 7 1⁄2' quads for the Grizzly Creek RA are Shoshone, Broken Rib Spring,
Glenwood Springs, and Carbonate.
Setting
The Grizzly Creek roadless area occupies most of the No Name
Creek drainage, and the lower half of Grizzly Creek’s. No Name flows from
Quartzite Ridge, a southerly extension of the White River Plateau, while
Grizzly Creek flows from the main Plateau. The plateau is a huge uplifted highland
with gently rolling terrain, and vast open grasslands. These creeks carve
deeply into this uplift and, before emptying into the Colorado River, are 1,500
feet deep with towering limestone cliffs.
If looking for trees in the area, you will find Douglas fir
and limber pine on the slopes, islands of Englemann spruce and subalpine fir in
the uplands, aspen on the canyon rims, and cottonwoods, alders, willows, and
even Ponderosa pines along the creeks. Many steep slopes are covered in Gambel
oak brush. The elevations in the unit range from 6,000 feet along lower No Name
Creek, to 9,800 feet on the divide between Grizzly and No Name Creeks.
What’s special about it?
Although the WRNF inventoried this unit at only 6,613 acres
in size, in actuality, it is a huge roadless area that encompasses most of the
southeast portion of the enormous White River Plateau. The No Name and Grizzly
Creek canyons are particularly stunning. They are deep, narrow, completely
undeveloped and are fantastic examples of how wild hidden places on the White
River National Forest can be. Deer and elk live here in the summer and on
sunny, southern-exposed, lower elevation slopes in the winter. The area between
Grizzly and No Name Creeks has been proposed as a Research Natural Area by the Colorado
Natural Heritage Program because of its diverse representation of plant
communities. The cliffed walls of the canyons have effectively isolated them
from the uplands, further securing these wild corridors.
The trails along the creeks make excellent hiking, horseback
riding, and fishing. There is also moderate hunting activity in the fall, but
there is no season in which the area receives heavy use. Lower No Name Creek
has an established rock climbing area on short gneiss cliffs, and Grizzly Creek
has some 1,000-foot plus limestone walls inviting rock climbers and cavers
alike for adventurous explorations.
Potential threats
The main threat to this area is the logic applied by the
USFS in determining what a roadless area is. In this case, they have excluded
all flat areas from the unit, citing the lack of natural barriers to off-road
vehicle incursion. This is another of many examples of where the WRNF have
inappropriately conflated roadless as a description of an on-the-ground
condition with their inability to manage bandit motorized users. In so doing, huge
sections of the drainages between flat divides have been excludedbased on
spurious reasoning.. The “official” WRNF Roadless Inventory only recognizes
6,613 out of 43,105 acres of roadlessness in the Grizzly Creek area - an 85%
reduction.
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