Mount Evans Wilderness

Mount Evans Wilderness
IUCN Category Ib (Wilderness Area)
Location	Clear Creek County, CO, USA
Nearest city	Idaho Springs
Coordinates	39°35′16″N 105°38′34″W / 39.58778°N 105.64278°W / 39.58778; -105.64278Coordinates: 39°35′16″N 105°38′34″W / 39.58778°N 105.64278°W / 39.58778; -105.64278
Area	74,401 acres (301.09 km2)
Established	1980
Governing body	U.S. Forest Service

The Mount Evans Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in Arapaho National Forest and Pike National Forest about 40 miles west of Denver, Colorado. The wilderness area is named after Mount Evans.

History

The first efforts to protect the Mount Evans area involved the purchase of Echo Lake Park and Summit Lake Park as part of the system of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. for the Denver Mountain Parks. This effort led to a proposal for a National Park overlapping, to a significant extent, what is now the Mount Evans Wilderness Area.^[1]

The first large tract of land in what is now the Mount Evans Wilderness area to be formally protected was the Abyss Lake Scenic Area in Pike National Forest, protecting the Abyss Lake cirque and much of the Lake Fork of Scot Gomer Creek, a tributary of Geneva Creek that drains the south side of Mount Evans. This area was designated prior to 1955.^[2]

References

1. ^ William Wyckoff, Creating Colorado: The Making of a Western American Landscape, 1860-1940, Yale University, 1999; pages 85-86
2. ^ National Forest Vacations, United States Forest Service, 1955.

• "Mount Evans Wilderness". U.S. Forest Service. http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/recreation/wilderness/mount_evans_wild.shtml.