Deep Creek

USFS:  16,747 acres (26.2 square miles)
BLM:  4,451 acres (7.0 square miles)
Total:  21,198 acres (33.1 square miles)

How to get there
The proposed Deep Creek Wilderness Area is located about 6 miles northwest of Dotsero and the Colorado River.

• The main access to the area is from Coffeepot Road (FS 600), which begins a few miles north of Dotsero. An outstanding view of the area may be found at the Deep Creek Overlook about 2.5 miles within the forest boundary. FS 620 branches to the right just past the turnoff to the overlook, and may also provide some access to the western rim of Deep Creek gorge. Johnson Pasture Trail (1852) descends from Coffeepot Road into upper Deep Creek, and provides the main foot access into the canyon.
• Access into upper Deep Creek may also be found at Deep Lake Campground on FS 600 near the head of Deep Creek. You may hike to Trail 1852 into the gorge, or take the 4WD Jack Springs Road (FS 618) down along the northeast rim of the Deep Creek gorge.
• The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the proposed Deep Creek Wilderness Area are Deep Lake, Sweetwater Lake. Broken Rib Creek and Carbonate.

Setting
The proposed Deep Creek Wilderness Area is dominated by a spectacular 15-mile long limestone gorge that plunges from the White River Plateau into the Colorado River. It is 2,000 feet deep at Deep Creek Overlook and a mile wide. The dominant tree in the canyon is the Douglas fir. There are cottonwoods along the creek, and spruce/fir forests interspersed with sagebrush on the broad, upland plateau above the rim. The creek starts just below Deep Lake (10,500 feet) and drops to 7,200 feet at the forest boundary and 6,100 feet at the Colorado River.

What’s special about it?
This is a very scenic and unique area. Its steep terrain and huge vertical relief have prevented significant human activity from ever occurring here. Deep Creek canyon features karst geo-hydrology, in which water flows rapidly through limestone, and as a result, over 40 caves have been identified in canyon — one of the largest concentrations of caves in Colorado. One of these, Groaning Cave, is the longest explored cave in Colorado. The caves also provide critical habitat for several rare species of bats.

Many Engelmann spruce on the plateau were killed by beetles in the 1950s, and now provide excellent cavity-nesting habitat for birds. There are Colorado River cutthroat trout in the creek. Big game (including bighorn sheep) use the canyon as summer range, and as a protected movement corridor. The area receives occasional use from hunters and cave explorers, but here, man is certainly a “visitor who does not remain.”

Deep Creek has been deemed Eligible for Wild & Scenic River designation by the USFS and identified by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program as a Conservation Area for its biological diversity values.

Potential threats
Water diversion projects have been proposed that involve Deep Creek Canyon, and would disrupt the water flow in the creek. The Colorado Army National Guard routinely conducts helicopter-landing exercises at several sites within the canyon. Loud intrusions such as these negatively impact wildlife, particularly bats and bighorn sheep. The relatively flat uplands above the rim are vulnerable to illegal recreational road creation. These uplands also contain large mature spruce that could be targeted for harvest at some point in the future. Timber harvest in these uplands could severely damage the hydrology so critical to the karst formations in the canyon.

Other info
The unit includes 4,451 acres of BLM land on its east side.