Chicago Ridge

8,445 acres (13.2 square miles)

How to get there
The proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area is located 8 miles north of Leadville on the east side of Tennessee Pass. There are no maintained trails within the proposed Area.

• The primary access road to the proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area is via FS 714, which travels along the East Fork Eagle River and makes up the northern boundary of the unit. Reach FS 714 from Camp Hale on US Highway 24. FS 714 can also be reached by taking FS 726 from US 24 about 3 miles north of Tennessee Pass.
• You can reach the central part of the proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area via the 4WD road FS 731, which begins from US 24 about 1.5 miles north of Tennessee Pass. This road climbs steeply past the El Capitan Mine and the 10th Mountain hut Vance’s Cabin to a berm closure at ~11,000 feet in Jones Gulch. Hike up the closed road to reach the top of Chicago Ridge.
• The USGS 7 1/2’ quads for the proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area are Pando, Copper Mountain, Leadville North, and Climax.

Setting
This proposed Wilderness Area is a high-elevation spur of the Continental Divide that divides the East Fork and South Fork of the Eagle River. The bulk of the unit, unlike the majority of the proposed Wilderness Areas in the Hidden Gems campaign, is above treeline and exhibits extensive alpine tundra vegetation. The east and north sides of Chicago Ridge are steep and rocky. Below the tundra, spruce/fir and lodgepole pine forests blanket the flanks of the ridge. The primary drainages in the area are the East Fork Eagle River and Jones Gulch which feeds the East Fork at Eagle Park. The elevation ranges from 9,400 feet on the East Fork to 12,714 feet on the Continental Divide.

What’s special about it?
The proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area is prime habitat for the Canada lynx (listed as Endangered by the CDOW and as Threatened nationwide by the USFWS) and provides a high-elevation migration corridor along the Continental Divide between the Sawatch Range and the Gore/Mosquito Ranges. The area contains an important sub-alpine willow carr (a wetland shrub community), identified by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. This landscape is also summer range for deer and elk.

The proximity of this proposed Wilderness to Vance’s Cabin and to Ski Cooper ski area makes it a popular backcountry skiing destination. In summer, there is a high opportunity to experience solitude, naturalness, and magnificent views from the ridge.

Potential threats
Heavy motorized recreation use occurs in the area and, coupled with the USFS hamstrung law enforcement capacity; this area could see an increase in illegal motorized activity leading to the creation of bandit, resource damaging roads.

Other info
Two undeveloped private in-holdings (probably mining claims) exist in the eastern portion of the proposed Chicago Ridge Wilderness Area. The proposed Wilderness contains a vacant grazing allotment. The proposed Wilderness is contiguous with the 6,900 acre Chicago Ridge RA on the San Isabel National Forest, forming a larger Chicago Ridge RA of 11,972 acres (18.7 square miles). A proposed “wildlife bridge” would be at Vail Pass, and could provide a migration route across I-70, linking this “untrammeled” landscape to the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area. These linkages have been identified through numerous studies to be a critically important linkage, or contrastingly a bottleneck, for movement of wildlife through the Southern Rockies Ecosystem.