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Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
Boulder: 1,337 acres (2.1 square miles)
Maryland Creek: 1,539 acres (2.4 square miles)
Willow: 1,164 acres (1.8 square miles)
Ryan Gulch: 632 acres (1.0 square miles)
TOTAL: 4,672 acres (7.3 square miles)
How to get there
These roadless areas are adjacent to the Town of
Silverthorne to the southwest, west, and northwest. The primary access road is
State Highway (SH) 9, Exit 205 on Interstate 70.
- There
is no public access from SH 9 into the Willow RA.
- The
only public forest access for the Boulder and Maryland Creek RAs is the North
Rock Creek Road (FS 1350), which branches off SH 9 at the Blue River
Campground, north of Silverthorne. This road leads to a trailhead for the Gore
Range Trail (60) at the Eagles Nest Wilderness boundary. You can wander into
these roadless areas from there.
- For
Ryan Gulch RA, cross the Blue River on the south side of Silverthorne and take
the Ryan Gulch Road (FS 1260) into the Wildernest subdivision. Stay on that
road until it ends to access the Buffalo Cabin Trail (31), or take a right down
low and turn into the Mesa Cortina subdivision, where you can find the Mesa
Cortina Trailhead (32). These trails enter the Eagles Nest Wilderness.
- The
USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for these RAs are Willow Lakes, Dillon, and Frisco.
Setting
These four roadless areas occupy the lowest portions of the
southeast slopes of the Gore Range, where many drainages spill into Blue River.
Boulder, Pebble, North and South Rock, Maryland, and Ryan and Salt Gulch are
all creeks that flow through these areas. The terrain consists of mellow
east-facing slopes, becoming flatter toward the valley floor. The vegetation
consists of stands of lodgepole pines and aspens, interspersed with mountain
shrublands. Elevations in these areas range from 8,500 feet at Boulder Creek to
10,100 feet in the South Rock Creek area.
What’s special about them?
The area around Silverthorne has grown rapidly, and many
subdivisions and developed ranches lie in close proximity to the Eagle Nest
Wilderness Area. These small roadless areas provide a much-needed buffer
between these developments and the Wilderness boundary. They limit incidences
of motorized trespassing from private property, and help to reduce the impacts
of urbanization upon the Wilderness.
The riparian corridors along the many creeks in the area
provide excellent wildlife habitat. The Rock Creek drainage has a unique
diversity of song birds and neo-tropical migratory birds. Salt Gulch in the
Ryan Gulch RA is critical winter range for a large herd of elk and a smaller
herd of deer. Ryan Gulch is a also a popular recreational access into the
Eagles Nest Wilderness.
Potential threats
Burgeoning construction right on the boundaries of these
units has an impact that spreads well into these small areas. Light and noise
pollution, private traffic, and user-created trails all affect these areas.
Residents of subdivisions adjacent to the Ryan Gulch RA desire to thin the
dense lodgepole pine forests in the unit as a firebreak. While understandable,
their efforts are misguided and would be better spent in reducing the
flammability of their home ignition zone, a 200 ft wide area immediately
surrounding and including the homes at risk.
Other info
In addition to acreage included in the RA by the USFS,
conservation groups have identified 1,391 more roadless acres associated with
these units, many on the south end of Ryan Gulch along I-70. These RAs are four
of twelve roadless areas that are contiguous with the Eagles Nest Wilderness.
Together, these form a roadless complex of over 168,000 acres (262 square
miles)! |
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