Rawah Wilderness Area

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Located in Roosevelt and Routt National Forests

Neighboring towns: Gould, Walden, Cowdery, Glendevey

Rawah Wilderness contains sculpted glacial valleys with numerous lakes, located at the northernmost extent of the Front Range.

Melting snow fills 26 lakes within the area, lakes enticingly stocked with rainbow, cutthroat and brook trout. Island Lake and Crater Lake are especially lovely, shadowed by walls that stand approximately 1,000 feet above the water.

The range marks the northern terminus of Colorado's Front Range, and like much of the Front Range, the granite peaks and ridges of the Rawahs owe their sweeping valleys and abundant lakes to the action of glaciers.At the Rawah's southern end, spruce-fir forest dominates, including many areas determined to be old growth. Continuing lower in elevation, the spruce-fir ecosystem gives way to dense stands of lodgepole pine that blanket the range's gentler slopes. As is common with lodgepole pine forests, the fire history of this portion of the wilderness is one of large conflagrations.

Hunters favor the lower elevations of the Rawahs for the healthy populations of deer and elk found there. Less common species include bighorn sheep and moose, which were reintroduced in the 1970's and '80s by the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Rawah was one of Colorado's five initial wilderness areas designated by the 1964 federal Wilderness Act. The designation included a tiny 27,000 acre core that was enlarged by another 50,000 acres with the passage of the 1980 Colorado Wilderness Act.

Size: 73,068

Elevation: 8,400 to 12,951 feet

Miles of trails: 76

Year designated: 1964, 1980

Hunting areas: 6, 7, 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.