The Hiking and Camping Guide to Colorado's Flat Tops Wilderness. Al Marlowe
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and variety.
While the construction of the Flat Tops has ended for now, the area does not remain static. Nature acts continuously, remodeling and then destroying what she has built. It’s kind of like the highway construction projects that are always ongoing. A look at the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon confirms what we know. The river is never clear. It appears as chocolate milk each spring or after a summer thunderstorm, evidence that Nature constantly erodes the land the river drains even as we watch.
The processes that gave us the Flat Tops and the Colorado Rockies also left valuable minerals in the state. Gold deposited by hydrothermal solution in numerous locations throughout the state attracted prospectors to Colorado hoping to strike it rich. The yellow metal, along with silver, molybdenum, and other minerals have contributed to Colorado’s economy for more than a century. Several companies mine coal along the Yampa River drainage, east and north of the Flat Tops. With the exception of a small number of oil wells and minor placer gold deposits, the Flat Tops is nearly devoid of economic minerals.
With few resources to exploit, the area remained pristine. Few roads ever penetrated the wilderness on the Flat Tops. The sides are too steep. A short snow-free period of just four or five months and the high altitude make ranching impractical other than summer grazing.
This high plateau has long been recognized as a place worth preserving. Old US Forest Service maps show it as a primitive area. The Trappers Lake area narrowly avoided development early in the twentieth century though. Arthur H. Carhart, a landscape architect working for the Forest Service, convinced his supervisor, Carl J. Stahl, that the lakeshore should be preserved rather than developed for summer home sites. Carhart’s dream later became a model for wilderness legislation. After years of debate, Congress passed the Wilderness Act of 1964. President Johnson signed it into law, preserving the Flat Tops. In 1978, Congress enlarged the boundaries, expanding the wilderness to its present size.
In the four thousand years since the eruption at Dotsero Crater, little appears changed in the Flat Tops. A wilderness visitor today will enjoy the same magnificent vistas the Ute Indians saw while hunting in the area a century and more ago. Elk still roam, sending their resonant mating calls echoing across the high glacial valleys each fall. Colorado River cutthroat, though threatened, still swim in their ancestral waters.
Flora and Fauna
Colorado’s largest deer and elk herds live in the area. Because of large herds the Flat Tops is a popular hunting area. Hunter success rates on deer range from 20 to 60 percent, depending on the season and game unit. Elk hunters average from 10 to 40 percent success. Every year, a few lucky hunters take trophy bulls in the wilderness.
While deer and elk are the most common big game, they’re not the only large animals that are found in the Flat Tops. Though not common, bighorn sheep live here. Bear and mountain lion also live in the wilderness. Because both are shy, you’re not likely to see either.
The White River deer herd is the largest in Colorado.
Coyotes are as widespread here as in other places in the West. You’ll hear them serenading the moon most often at evening or dawn. The coyote’s song makes a wilderness trip complete.
The Flat Tops is home for many small animals. You’ll find cottontail rabbits and snowshoe hares. Porcupines are likely to appear anywhere. Chipmunks may invade your camp. And pine squirrels will disturb the peace with their annoying, mindless chatter in the pine and spruce forests. Field mice will be attracted to any tasty morsels you may have in your camp. These tiny tan creatures are most active after dark, when they feel safe from predators. Another small critter you find—you’re more likely to hear it rather than see it at first— resembles a mouse. You’ll occasionally catch a glimpse of a vole running through tunnels in the grass and leaves. They’re darker than mice and have very short tails.
Moose were transplanted into the state beginning in the 1970s. They are seen frequently in the wilderness.
The many high lakes and ponds are attractive to two furbearers: beaver and muskrat. Beaver become active at dusk as they begin swimming about the ponds. After dark, they work hard—well, they’re busy as beavers—downing aspens to build and repair dams. Muskrats are much more casual about life. You may find these small, gray rodents at any time of day.
Birds are found on the Flat Tops in abundance. Songbirds include robins, chickadees, Steller’s and gray jays, and warblers. Occasionally, you’ll hear the deep croak of a passing raven. Woodpeckers include hairy and downy, as well as flickers. Should you plan your visit in one of the many campgrounds, you may want to take a hummingbird feeder. Two species, the broadtail and Rufus, will be attracted to the nectar.
Red-tailed hawks are one of the more common birds of prey you’ll see on the Flat Tops. With a bit of luck, you may see a peregrine falcon. You may also spot a golden eagle soaring high above the plateau, using its incredible vision to sight a tiny meal.
Waterfowl find the area attractive. Mallards and teal use beaver ponds to raise families. Another game bird found on the Flat Tops is the dusky (blue) grouse. You’ll run across these birds on the edges, openings close to timber. Wild turkey have been successfully introduced in the region and do well wherever they find feed in winter. Moose have also found the Flat Tops favorable in the past twenty years, the result of introduction by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW).
The Flat Tops is an area having large open meadows and immense stands of dense timber. The most common trees are spruce, fir, and lodgepole pines. You will observe large numbers of snags—standing dead trees—in the wilderness. Back in the 1940s and ’50s, an invasion of spruce beetles killed many trees. Even after nearly fifty years, many are still standing. They’re also a potential hazard in high wind.
Flat Tops visitors may question the reason for so many dead standing trees in the wilderness. As with all living things forests have finite lives. The life span of a forest may be measured in centuries, even millennia rather than years. A forester with the Colorado State Forest Service informed us that a healthy forest should have 60 to 150 trees per acre. As the number increases, trees compete for nutrients from the soil and for sunlight. Trees that are stressed become susceptible to disease, which leads to infestation of tree-killing insects such as pine and ips beetles. Unless a beetle-killing freeze occurs, they will survive to lay eggs on other nearby trees.
Unhealthy and dead trees are also susceptible to fire, whether caused by lightning or by a careless visitor. Several major fires have occurred in the Flat Tops in the past few decades. In 1979 the lower Derby Creek drainage burned. The Ute Creek fire of 1993 destroyed many acres of trees near the head of the creek on the northwest side of the wilderness. Lightning strikes caused fires in 2002 that burned the west slopes along the North Fork of the White, spreading to the Big Fish Lake area, and Trappers Lake. A second fire burned the Lost Lakes area south of Ripple Creek Pass. We can’t do anything about naturally caused fires but visitors can exercise caution with cooking and campfires.
Aspen groves are scattered all over the Flat Tops, especially at the lower elevations. They are a special attraction in the fall. Then, entire slopes will appear as a solid yellow or gold. Along streams and lakes, willows grow profusely. Sage also is found, usually on low elevation slopes.
Because of plentiful moisture, grasses are lush on the Flat Tops. Interspersed in the grasses is a multitude of wildflowers. Hidden among openings in the aspens, you’ll find columbines, the state flower.
Color varies with the season. July brings a variety of species and colors. Red, pink, white, blue, and yellow flowers often appear as a multicolored shag carpet. Blue