Basalt Mountain

• From Basalt, you can hike in from Lake Christine, which is just above the intersection of Two Rivers Road and Sopris Drive. It’s about a 2-mile hike up a 4WD road through Division of Wildlife property before you enter USFS land and the Basalt Mountain RA. It’s pretty much bushwhacking from here, although there is a vague trail that sidehills over to Cattle Creek.
• From El Jebel, drive up to Missouri Heights and make a right on FS road 509, which forks after about a mile. The left fork descends to Cattle Creek and gives access to various hiking trails heading northwards. The right fork, FS 524, leads up the north side of Basalt Mountain.
• It’s also possible to access the area from the head of Toner Creek (off the Fryingpan Road) and from Red Table Road (FS 514) via Cottonwood Pass.
• The USGS 7 1/2' quads for Basalt Mountain RA are Leon, Toner Reservoir, and Cottonwood Pass.

Setting
The Proposed Basalt Mountain Wilderness Area is a large area that covers not only Basalt Mountain but also most of the upper Cattle Creek drainage. It is separated from the even larger Proposed Red Table Wilderness Area to the east only by the 4WD northern section of Taylor Creek Road (FS 510).  It is also contiguous with adjacent BLM roadless land to the west.

It ranges in elevation from 7,000 near the Fryingpan River to 11,000 feet near the Red Table crest and covers a wide variety of landforms and vegetation types. Some of the south-facing slopes are very steep, but much of the area is rolling terrain with mixed sagebrush/grasslands yielding to oak/piñon/juniper and aspen or dark timber, depending on elevation. The top of Basalt Mountain is capped with a stand of old growth spruce-fir.

What’s special about it?
Basalt Mountain is an ancient shield volcano, as evidenced by its south-facing basalt-rock cliffs; farther east, the underlying sandstone has been carved into dramatic amphitheaters and formations, such as the Seven Castles towering above the Fryingpan Valley.

Overall, there’s a high degree of naturalness and variety/abundance of wildlife. The lower elevations are winter range for elk, deer and bighorn sheep. The area contains sensitive elk calving habitat, lynx habitat, and historic peregrine falcon sightings. Bighorn sheep and black bears can often be seen in the southern portion of the area. Cattle Creek is a fishery for the imperiled Colorado River cutthroat trout. Basalt Mountain provides critically important low-elevation habitat in the mid RF Valley area as well as a wildlife movement corridor across the mid-valley area between the Maroon Bells Wilderness and the high-elevation proposed Red Table Mountain Wilderness Area. Most of this area has been identified as having high habitat priority by the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  The globally rare Harrington’s beardtongue penstemon is also found in the area.

Basalt Mountain is an important and easily-accessible elk hunting area.  It is also a popular destination for mountain bikers, cross country skiers, and horseback riders, and it provides a scenic backdrop for communities in the mid-Roaring Fork Valley.

Potential threats
Old-growth logging has been proposed for the portion of the unit atop Basalt Mt., so allowing new road construction could enable that shelved project to be dusted off and pursued. Unauthorized motorized uses (dirtbikes and ATVs) occur throughout the area.

Other info
The Forest Service has divided this roadless area up into three units – A, B and C – because they have different uses allowed on them, but this isn’t a crucial distinction for the purposes of Wilderness designation.