The Hiking and Camping Guide to Colorado's Flat Tops Wilderness. Al Marlowe
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the HIKING and CAMPING GUIDE to the FLAT TOPS WILDERNESS
AL MARLOWE and
KAREN CHRISTOPHERSON
Text and photographs © 2014 by Al Marlowe and Karen Christopherson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marlowe, Al, 1938-
The hiking and camping guide to Colorado’s Flat Tops Wilderness / Al Marlowe and Karen Christopherson. — [Revised edition].
pages cm
Original edition published under title: A Hiking and Camping Guide to the Flat Tops Wilderness Area. Boulder, Colorado : Pruett Publishing, 1994.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-87108-311-1 (pbk.)
1. Hiking—Colorado—Flat Tops Wilderness—Guidebooks. 2. Camping—
Colorado—Flat Tops Wilderness—Guidebooks. 3. Flat Tops Wilderness (Colo.)—Guidebooks. I. Christopherson, Karen. II. Title.
GV199.42.C62F555 2014
796.5109788—dc23
2014004310
Author photo, page 226, by Jack Olson Photography.
Area Map on page 6-7 by the State of Colorado.
All trail maps by US Bureau of Land Management.
Design by Vicki Knapton
Published by WestWinds Press®
An imprint of
P.O. Box 56118
Portland, Oregon 97238-6118
503-254-5591
To Arthur Carhart, whose vision was to preservethe area around Trappers Lake rather than subdividethe lakeshore for summer cabins, leading to theWilderness Act of 1964.
CONTENTS
2. Regulations and Common Sense
5. North Fork of the White River (County Roads 8 and 12)
6. Forest Road 205 (Trappers Lake Road)
7. Forest Road 8 (County Road 8)
11. Eagle County Road 301 (Colorado River Road)
Wilderness Lodges and Outfitters
AREA MAP
EAST TRAILS
WEST TRAILS
1
THE FLAT TOPS
The Flat Tops Wilderness Area, located in west-central Colorado, is about 150 miles west of Denver, about 100 miles east of Grand Junction, and about 60 miles south from Craig. It is a popular destination for both residents and out-of-state visitors, bounded by Interstate 70 on the south, State Highway 13 on the west, Rio Blanco County Road 8 on the north, and State Highway 131 on the east. It is 267 square miles spread across four counties: Eagle, Garfield, Rio Blanco, and Routt. The boundaries fall within two national forests: White River and Routt. Several hundred miles of trails give hikers access to the area.
The wilderness is unique. It compares with no other mountain range in the state. Only the Columbia Plateau of the Pacific Northwest is similar. There are no tall spires, no fourteeners, found in the Flat Tops. Rather, it is a massive block of rock pushed upward and planed level, its surface punctured here and there by peaks rising a thousand feet above the high plateau.
Flat Top Mountain is the highest point in the wilderness at 12,354 feet.
The land doesn’t test you the way other mountain ranges will. There are few steep-sided peaks. At an average elevation near 11,000 feet, it doesn’t starve you of oxygen as