| Located in the San Isabel National Forest in the Wet Mountains, Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness covers 22,000 acres. It was designated as such in the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993.This is remote and lightly used, thus it offers excellent opportunities for solitude. Approximately 11 miles of trails can be found in the northern portion of the wilderness. The wilderness does not contain any lakes so opportunities for overnight trips are few late in the season.Soaring from an elevation of 7,600 feet to over 12,300 feet, the area is unusual since it is composed of both plains and mountains. No where else in Colorado does one find a combination of mountains and plains than here. Greenhorn Mountain is a result of uplifting that began some 65 million years ago. The crystalline core warped upward in layers through the surrounding sedimentary rock on the plains these layers remained flat, but those that didn't gave rise to the Wet Mountains, which the Greenhorn Wilderness is a part.At the lower elevations the wilderness consists of dry pinion-juniper forests and oakbrush-ponderosa pine forest. As you gain in elevation these forests give way to aspen, white fir, Englemann spruce, subalpine fir and eventually alpine tundra. These habitats are home to bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, black bear and many other critters.The Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness is remote and lightly used thus it offers excellent opportunities for solitude. Approximately 11 miles of trails can be found in the northern portion of the wilderness. The wilderness does not contain any lakes so opportunities for overnight trips are few late in the season. The east-facing lopes are steep, rocky, and generally bare. However, spring runoff from the Wet Mountains does supply several small streams; South Apache Creek in fact, has a thriving population of Colorado Greenback cutthroat trout. |
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