Salt Creek & West Lake Creek Roadless Areas

Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED

Salt Creek: 5,603 acres (8.7 square miles)
West Lake Creek: 3,304 acres (5.2 square miles)
TOTAL: 8,907 acres (13.9 square miles)

How to get there
The West Lake Creek roadless area is located 5 miles southwest of Edwards. Salt Creek roadless area is 9 miles southeast of Eagle.

• To reach the Salt Creek RA, take Brush Creek Road (County Road (CR) 110) southeast from Eagle into the National Forest. At a major fork, turn left onto East Brush Creek Road (FS 415). At Yeoman Park, take FS 418 up past Fulford. Turn left on Porphyry Mountain Road (FS 435; bad 4WD) to gain the southwest boundary of the roadless area. At Willow Park, 1.5 miles from the turnoff, is the south end of the Salt Creek Trail (1878), which descends through the unit and leads to County Road 8A (see below). FS 435 deteriorates rapidly and ends at a closed gate at the forest boundary.
• From FS 418, just past Porphyry Mountain Road, Bellyache Road (FS 421; rough 4WD) goes north along the Holy Cross Wilderness boundary onto Bellyache Mountain. The road ends at a gate at the forest boundary, but motorcycles and ATVs sneak around it. Bellyache Road is the boundary between the Salt Creek and West Lake Creek RAs. From it, the Elbow Park Trail (1897) goes west across the Salt Creek unit, and the Squaw Creek Trail (1897) goes east and north across the West Lake Creek unit.
• Reach the north end of Salt Creek Trail from the end of CR 8A, which branches off of Brush Creek Road about 4.5 miles from Eagle.
• To access West Lake Creek RA, get off I-80 at Edwards (Exit 163), cross the Eagle River, and go west on State Highway 6 past the trailer park. Turn south onto CR 23, Squaw Creek Road. From the road closure, you may hike Squaw Creek Trail (1897) around a private parcel and up Squaw Creek along the Holy Cross Wilderness boundary to the Bellyache Road (see above).
• From West Lake Creek Road (FS 423), on the eastern boundary of the unit, access is blocked by private property
• The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the Salt Creek and West Lake Creek RAs are Grouse Mountain and Fulford.

Setting
These two roadless areas lie on either side of Bellyache Mountain, in the northern foothills of the Sawatch Range. The Salt Creek RA occupies the upper Salt Creek drainage on the west side of Bellyache, and West Lake Creek RA occupies parts of the Squaw Creek, Casteel Creek, and Card Creek drainages on its east side. Bellyache Mountain is a broad flat-topped ridge with large open parks on its top. The creeks cut steeply into its flanks. The area is forested by Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir, interspersed with large stands of aspen. Elevations range from 8,000 feet at Squaw Creek to 10,460 feet above upper Salt Creek.

What’s special about them?
Mid-elevation areas such as these provide critical wildlife habitat, healthy forest, and a buffer between urban areas and protected wilderness. These areas are important summer range for deer and elk, and they receive moderate hunting traffic in the fall. Squaw Creek is a popular day-hiking area.

Potential threats
The primary threat to these areas is illegal off-road vehicle use. This activity is rampant, particularly in the Porphyry Mountain and Bellyache Mountain areas. Not only has this resulted in the creation of several user-developed trails, but has also caused the USFS to delete 4,969 acres from the west half of the Salt Creek roadless area due to excessive vehicular use which essentially cedes public lands management to a few lawless renegades. Residential home development on nearby private lands is eliminating the wildlife habitat value on those private lands, making it all the more important to preserve these roadless lands for the habitat values they provide.