Neota Wilderness Area

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

Located in Roosevelt and Routt National Forests

Neighboring towns: Estes Park, Walden, Gould, Grand Lake

Squeezed between Cameron Pass and Rocky Mountain National Park, Neota is part of a larger 40,000 acre roadless wilderness complex at the corners of Rocky Mountain National Park and Roosevelt National Forest that is fragmented only by imaginary administrative boundary lines on a map. Despite its small size, Neota remains essentially trail less.

Neota Wilderness is also known as Neota Flattops in deference to its glacially smoothed granite ridges. One of the few areas in Colorado covered by a true ice sheet during glaciation, Neota was left with large, flattened ridges that contrast sharply with the more typical steep ice-cut cirques among the surrounding peaks of the Never Summer Range. Still, a peak or two pokes above the open tundra.

From the vantage point of one such peak, Iron Mountain, I marvel the contradictions of the landscape around me. One of Colorado's largest wild tracts stretches north and south, ranging 70 miles from the northern Rawah Wilderness on through Rocky Mountain National Park and clear to the southern tip of the Indian Peaks. One-half million acres of glorious, precipitous, and remote country beckons.

Common forest wildlife, including deer, elk, beaver, and blue grouse inhabit the wilderness. Along the summer-wet valleys of the Trap, Corral and Neota Creeks, willows and sedges grow thick and occasionally hide a moose or two.

Size: 9,924 acres

Elevation: 10,000 to 11,890 feet

Miles of trails: no improved trails

Year designated: 1980

Hunting areas: 18, 171

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.