| Adoption Status: NOT ADOPTED
2,520 acres (3.9 square miles)
How to get there
- From Silverthorne, on Interstate 70, travel NW on State
Highway (SH) 9.
- At
Slate Creek, take County Road 15 up to Ute Pass. This is the northern extremity
of Ute Pass roadless area. At the Pass there is public parking and the old Ute
Pass Trail climbs SSE from there along the crest of the Williams Fork Mountains
on the eastern border of the unit.
- About
two miles SE of Slate Creek on SH 9, FS 2402.1 provides access through private
land to the Acorn Creek roadless area. An unmaintained trail (FST71.1) climbs
up the Acorn Creek drainage toward the Ptarmigan Wilderness Area.
- The
USGS 7 1/2’ quads for the Acorn Creek and Ute Pass roadless areas are Ute Peak
and Dillon.
Setting
The Acorn Creek and Ute Pass RAs are adjacent to the
northern portion of Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness Area on the western flanks of the
Williams Fork Mountains. The terrain
consists of a high relief mountainside drained by Acorn and North Acorn Creeks.
The vegetation varies from grass shrubsteppe and lodgepole pines lower, to
aspens up higher, and then to alpine tundra on the top of the Williams Fork
ridge. The elevation ranges from 8800
feet at Acorn Creek to 12,254 at Ute Peak.
What’s special about it?
These RAs provide a mid-elevation buffer around Ptarmigan
Peak Wilderness Area that is important to wildlife. Lower Acorn Creek contains
excellent winter range for deer and elk, and the upper elevations support a
large elk herd and moderate deer herd in the summer. There is potential wolverine habitat in these
units, and much of the Acorn Creek area has been identified by Colorado
Division of Wildlife as having high priority habitat.
The western flanks of the Williams Fork Mountains exhibit
the exposed core of the uplifted mountains, consisting of Precambrian granites
and gneisses, Cretaceous shales, and sandstone. This creates spectacular
geological scenery above the Lower Blue River Valley.
These units receive fairly heavy hunting use in the fall,
especially Acorn Creek. There is a high opportunity to experience solitude and
naturalness here, and there are outstanding views of the Eagle’s Nest
Wilderness Area.
Potential threats
The main threat to these RAs would be intrusion of motorized
vehicles from private lands on the western boundaries. Some timber logged in
the early 1900’s has recovered.
Other info
These roadless areas, combined with the Ptarmigan Peak
Wilderness Area and the adjacent Williams Fork roadless area on the Routt
National Forest, form a roadless complex of 50,114 acres (78.2 square miles).
The USFS has recommended that 1,982 acres of the Ute Pass and Acorn Creek RAs
become part of the Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness Area, and they are being managed
as such. |
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