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Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
12,652 acres (19.7 square miles)
How to get there
The Housetop Mountain roadless area is located eight miles south of Parachute. There is little public access to this area and no maintained trails.
- To approach the eastern portion of the area, get off Interstate 70 at Parachute and cross the Colorado River to Battlement Mesa. Take Garfield County Road (CR) 300 southwest to the second turnoff for CR 306. This heads up Wallace Creek and becomes X.50 Road. From its closure at the BLM boundary, you may hike up Wallace Creek along the eastern boundary of the unit, past the Kennon Cow Camp, to the top of Battlement Mesa.
- The Wallace Creek area can reached from the south by taking the 58.60 Road north from Collbran.
- To approach the western portion of the area, exit I-70 at De Beque, and cross the river onto the V.00 Road. This road skirts the western boundary of the National Forest in the vicinity of Horsethief Mountain.
- All other access is blocked by private property.
- The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the Housetop Mountain RA are De Beque, Housetop Mountain, and Hawxhurst Creek.
Setting
Battlement Mesa is a dramatic, 20-mile long east/west ridge that divides Plateau Creek from the Colorado River. The Housetop Mountain roadless area occupies the north slope of the western half of this divide. The terrain is very steep with many rugged peaks on the ridgeline. The area is cut deeply by numerous V-shaped drainages, including Wallace Creek, Alkali Creek, and Horsethief Creek, that flow into the Colorado River. Between the creeks are sharp divides.
This is a fairly arid area, and the vegetation consists mainly of pinyon/juniper forest, Gambel oak brush, and sagebrush. There are pockets of aspen and Douglas Fir in the Wallace Creek area. Elevations range from 5,800 feet at Alkali Creek to 9,289 on Horse Mountain.
What’s special about it?
Rugged terrain and difficult access have kept this area completely undeveloped. This may be the least-visited area on the White River National Forest, even during hunting season. This unit connects to the Grand Mesa National Forest to provide a long mid-elevation corridor of wildlands that stretches from De Beque along Battlement Mesa to the Thompson Creek area. Mid-elevation areas such as this are critically important for maintaining biological diversity yet remain largely unprotected in federal public lands. The arid mountains in the unit represent an unusual ecosystem for the White River National Forest.
The Housetop Mountain RA possesses winter range for big game, and supports a year-round herd of bighorn sheep that is considered imperiled.
Potential threats
The area has little commercially desirable timber, and extremely light recreational use. The main threat to its roadlessness is future exploration for oil and gas, an activity that is increasingly rapidly in the region. In fact, the area contains many parcels already leased for energy development and will probably see a great deal of interest from drillers before the current boom plays out. Roadless advocates should request that any development of the existing leases require No Surface Occupancy stipulations. Existing leases should also be allowed to expire at the end of the current lease term. No new parcels in this roadless area should be leased.
Other info
Conservation groups have identified 4,292 roadless acres associated with the Housetop Mountain RA, in addition to the acreage included here by the USFS (see map). The extra acreage was inexplicably excluded by the USFS, as this land is definitely roadless, and is not currently adjacent to areas of development. This unit is separated from the 25,344 acre Mamm Peak roadless area only by a strip of roadless private land in Wallace Creek. Also, each of these units are contiguous with large roadless areas on the Grand Mesa National Forest to the south (the Housetop Mountain and Battlement Mesa RAs, respectively). Together, these RAs form a roadless complex of at least 75,000 acres (117 square miles).
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