La Garita Wilderness Area

Government information and links are at the bottom of this page.

Located in Gunnison and Rio Grande National Forests

Neighboring towns: Lake City, Creede, Wagon Wheel Gap, South Fork, La Garita, Saguache, Powderhorn, Gunnison

One of colorado's lesser known wilderness areas, the La Garita Wilderness is, in fact, one of the state's original five. Lagarita means "the lookout" in Spanish, and this wilderness amply deserves the name. From the summit of this wilderness's single fourteener (14,014 foot San Luis Peak), climbers can gaze across the upper Rio Grande Valley and down the long stretch of the San Luis Valley. About 35 miles of the Continental Divide lie well above a sprawling forestland that provides ideal habitats for huge numbers of elk and mule deer.

La Garita's gentle alpine terrain offers refuge to thriving herds of elk, mule deer and bighorn sheep. Hikers are likely to encounter elk in the open alpine bowls along the divide. Many trailheads open onto approximately 175 miles of pathways, almost all especially well suited for horsepacking. Large expanses of untracked forests blanket La Garita's lower elevations, providing habitat for pine marten and other wilderness dependent species. The primeval spruce and fir forests of Wason Park and Silver Park on the south slopes of the La Garita Mountains comprise a singularly important undisturbed habitat.

Like much of the San Juans, the La Garita Mountains consist of multiple layers of volcanic rocks. The most recent were laid down approximately 25 million years ago in deep layers of highly fluid basalt lava flows. As these cooled and shrunk, they formed vertical columns resembling the logs of a stockade. The lower, western slopes of Stewart and San Luis peaks show prime examples of these stacked hexagonal towers of basalt. The La Garita Mountains around the Wheeler Geologic Area contain volcanic deposits of a different sort. Here, the action of water, wind, and snow has eroded soft, rosy-hued volcanic tuff into ghostly pinnacles, spires and other fluted shapes. How unexpected it is to scramble through the forest to treeline only to encounter delicate formations more commonly associated with the arid deserts of the Colorado Plateau!

Size: 128,858 acres

Elevation: 9,000 to 14,014 feet

Miles of trails: 175

Year designated: 1964, 1980, 1993

Hunting areas: 66, 67, 681, 76

NOTE: coloradowilderness.com gratefully appreciates the 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.