Meadow Mountain A& B Roadless Areas

Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED

Meadow Mountain A: 2,088 acres (3.3 square miles)
Meadow Mountain B: 3,141 acres (4.9 square miles)
TOTAL: 5,229 acres (8.2 square miles)

How to get there

• Meadow Mountain A roadless area is two miles south of Avon. Meadow Mountain B is one mile southwest of Minturn.
• There is no public motorized access to Meadow Mountain A roadless area. Arrowhead Ski Area is to the west, and Beaver Creek Ski Area is to the east, and the rest of the boundary is surrounded by exclusive, gated, restricted access residential development. The Turquoise Lake Trail (2109) skirts the southeast corner of the unit, and may be approached from Beaver Creek Ski Area.
• Two hiking trails provide the only access into Meadow Mountain B roadless area. These are the West Grouse Trail (2129) and the Grouse Creek Trail (2127), which lead into the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. These can be reached directly from Minturn, by beginning on the closed FS 733. Immediately bear right onto the trail, which soon splits into the two trails mentioned above. These trails can also be approached from the Minturn Ranger Station near Dowds Junction. Climb up Meadow Mountain Road (FS 748; closed to public motor traffic), and follow signs to the trails.
• The USGS 7 1⁄2' quads for the Meadow Mountain roadless areas are Grouse Mountain and Minturn.

Setting
These roadless areas are on each side of Beaver Creek Ski Area. They occupy fairly-steep and heavily-forested north-facing slopes at the extreme north end of the Sawatch Range. McCoy, West Grouse, and Grouse Creeks flow through these units into the Eagle River. Meadow Mountain B features a vast sloping shield blanketed in spruce/fir forest. This gives way to huge sloped meadows above Minturn.

What’s special about them?
The primary significance of these two areas is as a buffer between the heavily-developed Beaver Creek area and the Holy Cross Wilderness. They help to dilute the impact of constant construction and loud human traffic upon the Wilderness. Meadow Mountain B has importance as a recreational hiking area for the residents of Minturn. Stone Creek, on the western edge of Meadow Mountain B RA, is critical elk calving habitat.

Potential threats
Motorized intrusion from adjacent private residences into Meadow Mountain A RA are virtually impossible to police. Coniferous forests in these units have been hit pretty hard by bark beetles generating the inappropriate response to do something about them. Unfortunately, doing something means logging, a response that would much more ecologically destructive than the natural thinning action performed by the beetles. Any increased fuel loading may cause alarm to homeowners on adjacent private lands and trigger calls for fuel reduction. Again, this inappropriate response would cause more ecological harm than good while not actually protecting homes. The only assured way to protect homeowners is for them to treat the home ignition zone, an area within 200 ft. of the structure and the structure itself.

Other info
Conservation groups have identified 6,272 more acres of roadless area in these units, in addition to the acreage recognized by the USFS. Most of these are north of Meadow Mountain B, stretching down to State Highway 24 and I-70. Meadow Mountain A and B RAs are two of ten that surround Holy Cross Wilderness Area. Together, they form a roadless complex of over 165,000 acres (257 square miles).