Freeman Creek
1,260 acres (2.0 square miles)
Setting
This small area extends the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area down to the Piney River. The Piney River is the primary drainage from the high Gore Range into the Colorado River. The areas are timbered mostly with lodgepole pine, although Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and aspen may be found as well. Freeman Creek features some large wet meadows. Freeman Creek itself is around 9,000 ft. in elevation.
What's special about the area?
This landscape provides summer range for elk and mule deer, and moose are known to frequent in the wet meadows around Freeman Creek. The proposed Freeman Creek Addition also contains a well-preserved lower-montane willow carr (wet shrub community).
Potential threats
This area is under USFS management for wood fiber production, as demonstrated by the clear-cut areas on the southern boundaries of the unit. Further harvesting in the area would have to occur very close to the Wilderness boundary. Pine bark beetles are killing most mature lodgepole in the region and there is likely to be pressure to salvage the beetle killed trees...though there is no ecological justification for it. Concerns about fire risk are better addressed closer to communities like Vail where the structures at risk occur.
How to get there
The proposed Freeman Creek Addition to the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area is about 5 miles north of Vail. Approach the area from Vail via Red Sandstone Road (FS 700).
- Take Red Sandstone Road (FS 700) to Piney Crossing Campground, a couple of miles from Piney Lake. You will pass about a dozen dispersed campsites on your left along the way. From the campground, hike down the Piney River Trail (1890), or take the closed FS 410 to East Meadow Creek. Both of these trails enter the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area.
- The USGS 7 1⁄2' quad for the proposed Freeman Creek Wilderness Area is Vail West.
Other info
The proposed Freeman Creek Addition is one of 12 roadless areas that are contiguous with the Eagles Nest Wilderness, which together forms a roadless complex of over 168,000 acres (262 square miles)!
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