What’s special about it? 
From a volume standpoint, Red Table Mountain is surely among the largest massifs in the state. It runs east/west, providing a unique mid- and high-elevation corridor from the Colorado/Roaring Fork Valleys to the Sawatch Range and Continental Divide, and its vertical relief provides a variety of habitat types. It is a massive sandstone deposit of the Maroon formation and very rare paleontological evidence of an early reptile has been discovered here.

This large RA has had little historical disturbance and retains an excellent remote and primitive character. At least forty separate drainages radiate from the crest of Red Table, providing outstanding topographical diversity. Red Table contains critical habitat for bighorn sheep, lynx, and peregrine falcons, and is a deer and elk calving area. The NW portion of the RA has been identified by the Colorado Dept of Wildlife as one of ten trophy big game areas in the state. A sensitive plant species also occurs in the unit.

Because it lacks any large lakes or 14,000-foot peaks, there has been little recreational tourism in the Red Table/Gypsum Creek RA. This has allowed it to retain great capability for solitude and challenge. The gently rolling terrain on its 18-mile ridge makes Red Table Mountain one of the greatest moderate ridge hikes in the Rocky Mountains, with excellent 180 degree views of five wilderness areas. A ski tour along the ridge would be phenomenal and relatively safe. The unit is popular with hunters in the fall, and some outfitters run operations here, especially on the east side. If you fly into Aspen from Denver, look down at Red Table Mountain as you fly over, and imagine yourself on that ridge, passing above the lakes and creeks that seemingly go forever. There is no other area like this on the WRNF.

Potential threats 
There are areas of this unit that regularly receive illegal use by motorized vehicles, especially motorcycles. The highest concentration of such use is in the Suicide Mountain area in the NW portion of the RA, where several crisscrossing bandit trails have been blazed steeply through the forest. These ORV’s mostly come from Gypsum.  The Ruedi Overlook Trail (1912) also receives motorcycle use originating from the recreational development at the western end of Ruedi Reservoir. There is a large amount of old-growth timber in the Red Table RA, which, if harvested, would necessitate road construction and significant habitat loss.

Currently, the Colorado Army National Guard routinely conducts high altitude helicopter training operations on Red Table Mountain. These operations are an important element in preparing our troops for overseas duty but take a heavy toll on the wild and quiet character of this unit. The impacts and appropriateness of these training activities are currently being analyzed in an Environmental Assessment expected to be released by early to mid-summer '06. We hope that the analysis will steer towards a solution whereby these important trainings can continue in appropriate places without jepordizing the wild, quiet character of this area.

Other info 
If the Taylor Creek Road FS 510 (a dead-end, road to nowhere) were closed, the resulting Red Table/Gypsum Creek/Basalt Mountain roadless complex would be over 84,000 acres (131 square miles) in size, roughly equivalent to the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness Area. The USFS has recommended 49,848 acres (81%) of the Red Table roadless area to become a designated wilderness area, and is currently managing it as such. Some areas were excluded from wilderness recommendation because of historical timber activity, helicopter landing sites, and water developments. Conservation groups have identified an additional 4,133 roadless acres adjacent to Red Table/Gypsum Creek RA.