Comanche Peak Wilderness Area

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Located in Roosevelt National Forest

Neighboring towns: Estes Park, Gould, Walden, Glendevy, Rustic, Red Feather Lakes, Rand

The Big South Fork of the Cache la Poudre River is largely responsible for draining Comanche Peak, and it joins forces with the Little South Fork to form Colorado's only Wild and Scenic River drainage. Trout fishing can be good on the rivers, as well as in several lakes and streams, it punctuates ten miles of the wilderness with tumbling cascades and quiet pools. Common game animals inhabit the wilderness, including a large elk herd around Signal Mountain, but more unusual are several moose that have migrated from the nearby Laramie River valley along the Rawah Range.

Gentle tundra slopes of the Mummy Range, flanked by dense lodgepole pine forests, characterize much of the Comanche Peak Wilderness. The crest of the Mummy Range denotes the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park; Comanche Peak Wilderness consists of those lands north of this ridge. The granite peaks of the Mummy Range were long ago scoured and smoothed into glacial history, only a handful of lakes dot the wilderness - those in the Browns, Comanche and Emmaline Lake basins. The real water magic of the Comanche Peak Wilderness lies in the mesmerizing cascades of the Big South Fork of the Cache la Poudre on the western edge of the wilderness. Here, the Big South carves its way out of Rocky Mountain National Park through cool forests of Engelmann spruce and Douglas fir.

The rugged Mummy Range (of which Comanche Peak is a part), combined with the river,forms one of the state's most serpentine Wilderness boundaries. The interior of the area, however, is quite accessible with few spots more than five miles from a trailhead.

Size: 66,791 acres

Elevation: 8,000 to 12,702 feet

Miles of trails: 70

Year designated: 1980

Hunting areas: 171, 19, 20, 18

NOTE: Eloquent descriptions of our wilderness areas provided by Mark Pearson, author of "The Complete Guide to Colorado's Wilderness Areas", Westcliffe Publishers, Englewood, CO. The book also contains many beautiful pictures by renowned photographer and Colorado resident John Fielder.