2024 To-Hike List – Colorado’s West Elk Wilderness

Fire is an everpresent danger in Colorado, the byproduct of an abundance of trees occupying a mostly arid area that’s prone to intense lightning storms. As recently as 2020, fires ripped the central portion of the state in half, with each of the three largest fires in state history burning during the same season.

Over 660,000 acres burned that summer, including vast portions of the Never Summer Wilderness in the East Troublesome Fire and portions of Rocky Mountain National Park in the Cameron Peak Fire (the state’s single-largest fire on record at over 208,000 acres). The drought that most of the state was already in was exacerbated by early, relentless heat and a lack of the usual monsoon rains that almost always show up in early summer, the result of which was a statewide tinderbox just waiting to explode.

Fortunately, the 2023 fire season was much, much different. Crested Butte, for instance, received just 168 inches of snow during the winter lead-up to the catastrophic fire season of 2020, but rebounded with a 314 inch pile-up of snow this past winter. More snow leads to more snowpack, more snowpack means runoff season lasts later into the year, and runoff season lasting later into the year means the window for fire season to erupt in dry conditions before autumn snow reduces drastically. For the West Elk Wilderness, located in the Gunnison National Forest just southeast of the town of Crested Butte, that proved vital last fall.

On July 26th last year, a fire was reported on a ridgeline between Squirrel and Mill Creeks in Gunnison County, some 10 miles southeast of Crested Butte and very near the western border of the West Elk Wilderness. All signs pointed to it being lightning-induced, and had the eventually-named Lowline Fire popped up in that very same location in a different, 2020-esque set of conditions, it may well have exploded through the ripe aspen and evergreen forests of the region.

Thanks to relatively hydrated conditions and the diligent work of fire crews, the blaze was contained at just under 2,000 acres and focused into a valley where it would stagnate until early October snowfall eventually extinguished it for good. The Forest Service officially lifted closures of Gunnison County Road 727, the Lowline Trail, and Mill Castle Trail on October 31st, and the area now sits under its usual coating of winter snow.

The West Elk Wilderness got lucky in ways the Never Summer Wilderness, Comanche Peak Wilderness, and Rocky Mountain National Park did not in 2020. While the first mile or two of the Mill Castle Trail access point to the technical boundary line of the West Elk will likely look a little charred this summer, the over 176,000 acres that is the designated wildneress area remain unscathed, its reputation as one of the wildest, least-visited locations in the state intact. If anything, that the fire closed off the most popular access point for tail-end of 2023 might mean even fewer people choose to check it out this year.

Despite being the fifth-largest of the forty-four wilderness areas in the state of Colorado, there’s not a lot of pub about the West Elk. It contains none of the state’s fifty-eight peaks that top 14,000 feet and thereby is bypassed by peak-baggers, and it’s surrounded by more well-known areas like the Collegiate Peaks, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, and the Maroon Bells. Despite being smack-dab in the middle of the Rockies, it somehow sits mostly unnoticed, as if the bigger peaks and surrounding valleys have formed something of a defensive wall around it.

As a result, it’s become known as a hunting haven come fall, with elk and deer populations there soaring as those animals seek solitude there while we humans recreate more thoroughly elsewhere. With over 200 miles of hiking trails – some maintained by humans, most maintained more by Mother Nature herself – there is still very well-mapped access to the West Elk, though you’re going to need the ability to read topographic maps and route find to truly ensure your safety in the area. It’s empty, it’s rugged, and it may well be all yours when you get there.

A leisurely walk down gravel trails the West Elk does not provide.

If you go…

The Castles, as seen above, are a series of rock pillars that rise to over 12,200 feet and form one of the more unique features in all of Colorado. They are the single most striking visual you get in the West Elk, though other pillars of a similar erosion are also everpresent in the area. The view from Storm Pass (via Mill Castle Trail #450) looks at the Castles from the south, with views of the Maroon Bells further north on the clearest of days.

Trailheads are readily accessible in non-fire scenarios on the east side of the wilderness area, with the Swampy Pass Trailhead off Gunnison County Road 730, Lowline and Mill Castle Trailheads off 727. The Castles sit on the very eastern border of the wilderness – quite close to the location where the Lowline Fire could have done a lot more damage – as does West Elk Peak (at 13,035 feet the tallest point in the wilderness).

The western portion of the wilderness runs almost to the Gunnison/Delta County line, and whereas the eastern portion is the ‘more’ hiked area of the two very much un-hiked halves, the western portion is where much of the hunting reputation is born. Still, if you’re aiming to backpack through the western section before hunting season opens, you’ll find it almost empty with the chance to see wildlife in bunches the way Colorado always used to be. Access from the Beaver Reservoir via the Lone Cabin Trail (#876) can be found off Gunnison County Road 710, while a trip down road 709 to the Throughline/Coal Creek Trailhead will give you acces to the Throughline Trail (#860) and epic views of Mount Gunnison (12,719 feet, below).

If you’re coming from the south off of US-50, the Coal Creek Trail (#452) originates in the Curecanti National Recreation Area at the northern tip of Blue Mesa Reservoir. The Curecanti Trail (#870) gets going at its namesake trailhead at the end of county road 720 south of the border of the wilderness, too.

From any direction, you’ll find access to varied terrain between 7,000 feet and 13,000 feet, with the chance to summit some reasonably prominent peaks to camping in aspen-lined valleys along streams and lakes. Black bears, moose, elk, deer, and mountain lions all occupy the area, and given how few humans are regularly found there, it may well be one of the better spots in the entire state to see wildlife.

You can spend a single day hiking in the wilderness area and see plenty. You could make it into an overnight, or two-night trip and see as much varied terrain as the Rockies have to offer. If you study your map well enough (and make sure which creeks are running flush), you could spend an entire week on your trek. That’s part of the allure of the West Elk – it’s remote enough to let you feel like you’ve got the middle of nowhere to yourself from almost your first step on the trail.

Heck, you might just run into me down there – if you look hard enough.

Resources

• The most recommended map of the region comes from Colorado-based Outdoor Trail Maps.
• For a reference point, here’s a recap of a 2018 backpacking trek through the West Elk Wilderness from Tomcat’s Outdoor Adventures.
• This, from the US Forest Service, provides you with the specific rules, regulations, and details of the area.