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Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
20,777 acres (32.4 square miles)
How to get there
Ptarmigan Hill roadless area is located about 7 miles
southwest of Frisco, just west of Copper Mountain Ski Area and northeast of
Camp Hale.
- From
Vail Pass on Interstate 70, take the Shrine Pass Road (FS 709) along the north
side of the RA. At Shrine Pass, a few short roads branch of to the south. The
popular Shrine Mountain Inn is here. The Shrine Pass also provides access to
the unit’s west side via the rough Wearyman Creek Road (FS 747).
- From
Camp Hale in the Eagle River valley, FS 702 gains access to two roads that
penetrate the Pearl Creek area, the best being FS 715. Just south of there,
from FS 714 gains access to FS 755, which leads to the Jackal Hut within the
southern portion of the RA.
- The
USGS 7 1/2' quads for Ptarmigan Hill RA are Copper Mountain, Pando, Red Cliff,
and Vail Pass.
Setting
Ptarmigan Hill RA occupies much of the Elk Ridge, which
divides the Eagle River from Tenmile Creek. This is a major part of the Gore
Range. Much of this ridge is above treeline (12,000+ feet) and is covered in a
vast expanse of tundra and its associated alpine plant communities, as well as
steep talus slopes. Several creeks descend steeply from the ridge in deep
drainages that are densely forested with spruce and fir. As seen from Copper
Mountain Ski Area, this area exhibits numerous snowy bowls and cirques on its
eastern side. The area around Shrine Pass is a rolling forest that features
large open parks.
What’s special about it?
The Ptarmigan Hill RA is part of an extremely important
high-elevation migration corridor for wildlife, probably the most important in
the entire Southern Rockies Ecosystem.
Animals traveling north from the Continental Divide in the Chicago Ridge
area must use this unit to access the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness Area north of
I-70. A proposed “wildlife bridge” would span the interstate near Vail Pass to
facilitate this movement. This is particularly critical for the endangered
lynx, which move through this area frequently, but would serve a large variety
of wildlife species in addition. Increasing development on each side of the RA,
at Vail and Copper Mountain Ski Areas, acts to funnel wildlife through this
corridor. This unit is truly an island of habitat surrounded by development
nearly on all sides. Wildlife movement to the area is already challenged by
high speed/volume roads, ski area development, private resort/residential
development, and a huge industrial mining operation at Climax - all more
underscoring the need to maintain what remains of the areas ecological
integrity and roadless values. The area is also pristine summer habitat for
deer and elk. The Colorado Division of Wildlife had identified the eastern half
of the unit as an area of high-priority habitat.
This roadless area is very important as a winter recreation
area. Two 10th Mountain ski huts, the Shrine Mountain Inn and Jackal Hut, are
within the unit. They provide popular access to backcountry skiing. The area
also receives heavy skiing use from Vail Pass via snowmobiles, and also from
the adjacent Copper Mountain Ski Area. Several miles of the scenic Colorado
Trail pass through the SE portion of the unit, providing a valuable summer
hiking resource. The west-facing cliffs above Camp Hale are a developed rock
climbing area.
Potential threats
Given the intensity of recreation use of the area, it is
reasonable to assume that there will be increasing calls for more recreational
developments whose attendant roads will fragment this important island/migration
corridor and compromise its ecological function. There is a private inholding
south of Wilder Gulch, the development of which could alter the character of
the roadless area substantially. Timber extraction and ski area expansion
represent other potential threats to this area.
Other info
Conservation groups have identified an additional 3,323
acres of roadless area adjacent to the Ptarmigan Hill RA. The USFS has split
the unit into “A” and “B” sections, divided by a county line. This is an arbitrary
boundary, and should not affect roadless area protection. The little used 4wd
road, FS 714, separates this unit from the Chicago Ridge RA to the south and,
if joined, would form a 33,000 acre (51 square mile) roadless complex,
stretching from Vail Pass to Leadville.
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