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Adoption Status: ADOPTED
6,477 acres (10.1 square miles)
How to get there
The Red Mountain roadless area is located one mile north of Aspen. Approach the area from Aspen or Woody Creek.
- From Aspen, hikers and skiers can access this area from the Hunter
Creek Trailhead, which is on Red Mountain Road. Hikers can also begin
at the Lower Hunter Creek Trailhead on Park Circle. Mountain bikers
should continue up Red Mountain Road, which becomes the Hunter Creek
Road (Trail 2194; may also appear as CR 20.A3 or FS 130.1A, depending
upon your map) at the forest boundary. This 4WD road is closed to
motorized traffic, except during hunting season. This road traverses
along the bench north of Hunter Creek and ends at the Hunter-Fryingpan
Wilderness boundary, where it continues as Trail 2194.
- From the Hunter Creek Trail (2194), skiers climb through Van Horn
Park and traverse east to the McNamara Hut of the 10th Mountain Hut
Association. The hut is on the Wilderness boundary north of Bald Knob.
- The Four Corners Trail (1989) climbs out of Van Horn Park to the
divide and “Four Corners.” The Four Corners Trail can also be reached
from: 1) the 4WD road (20B.1; closed except during hunting season) up
Lenado Gulch from the Hunter Creek Road (2194); 2) the Plunge (1987), a
steep biking trail from Hunter Creek Road (2194); 3) the Tincup Creek
Trail (1989) from Lenado (see below); or 4) the steep and rocky
Sunnyside Trail (1987)/Shadyside Trail (1988). The Sunnyside Trailhead
is north of Aspen on Cemetery Lane near Red Butte.
- From Woody Creek take Lenado Road (County Road 18) to Lenado. Here
is the Tincup Creek Trailhead (1989), which leads to Four Corners, and
the Woody Creek Trailhead (1994), which leads into the Hunter-Fryingpan
Wilderness Area.
- The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the Red Mountain RA are Aspen, Thimble Rock, Meredith, and a small part on Ruedi.
Setting
The
Red Mountain roadless area occupies much of the Hunter Creek/Woody
Creek divide. Red Mountain is the west end of this divide, and it falls
away steeply to Woody Creek on the north, the Roaring Fork River on the
west, and Hunter Creek on the south. The divide itself has gentle,
rolling terrain that features large open parks on its eastern side. The
SW-SE aspects are sunny and covered in Gambel oak, shrubs, and red
dirt. The divide and the north-facing slopes above Woody Creek are
forested with Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir. Elevations in the unit
range from 7,800 feet at lower Woody Creek to 11,092 feet on Bald Knob.
What’s special about it?
The
Red Mountain roadless area is a very significant recreational resource
for the City of Aspen. The area receives heavy year-round use. The
Hunter Valley is a heavily-used day-hiking destination. The Hunter
Valley/Four Corners/Sunnyside trail system is the most popular mountain
biking area in the vicinity of Aspen. Skiers regularly use the area in
winter to reach the McNamara Hut and Bald Knob. The area is a deer/elk
hunting destination in the fall, when the Hunter Creek Road is open to
motorized traffic.
This unit is adjacent to the
Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness Area. Although the roadless area is
heavily-used, visitors rarely enter the Wilderness from here, and it
acts as a very effective buffer between the built-up area of Aspen and
the pristine land in the Hunter-Fryingpan. Big game use the area as a
mid-elevation transitional zone.
Potential threats
A
private inholding exists to the northeast of Van Horn Park adn has the
potential to be developed into a second or recreational home. This
would substantially affect the area, as a road would need to be
constructed to provide year-round access, as well as making
improvements to existing roads.
Other info
Conservation
groups have identified 437 acres of roadless area associated with Red
Mountain RA that the USFS omitted from their inventory. The Red
Mountain RA is one of seven roadless areas that are contiguous with the
Hunter-Fryingpan and Mount Massive Wilderness Areas. Together, these
comprise a roadless complex of over 144,000 acres (225 square miles)! |
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