Elk Creek

51,806 acres (80.9 square miles)

How to get there
The proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area is located about 7 miles NNE of New Castle and 10 miles north of Silt. Approach the area from New Castle via the Buford-Newcastle Road (FS 245).

• To approach the east side of the unit, about 4 miles northwest of Castle turn north onto Clinetop Road (County Road (CR) 243); this road becomes FS 603 at the forest boundary. When the pavement ends, at the first switchback, you will find two maintained trails. The left one is the Main Elk Trail (2157), which goes west up a side drainage and meets the Mansfield Ditch Trail (2291) that skirts the west edge of the unit. The right trail is Hadley Gulch Trail (1840) which ascends Hadley Gulch to the Clinetop Cow Camp. From this trail, the Zig-Zag Trail (1840.1A) climbs north out of the gulch up to Clinetop Mesa. Continue up the Clinetop Road (FS 603) past Clinetop Cow Camp to access the bulk of the Elk Creek area, which the USFS excluded from their roadless inventory.
• To approach the west side of the unit, stay on the Buford-Newcastle Road (FS 245). Just before the forest boundary, you may park, and hike north on the Mansfield Ditch Trail (2291), which traverses under the bench above the west side of Deep Creek. The north end of this trail is on FS 820, a minor road that branches off FS 245. This trail provides great views of precipitous Deep Creek Point.
• Most of the actual Elk Creek roadless area has been omitted from the USFS inventory. To reach the remaining “unofficial” roadless area, continue up the Buford-Newcastle Road (FS 245), finding FS Roads 830 and 822 that branch south along divides in this area. FS 822 is Clark Ridge Road, and provides access to several trails in the Deep Creek and Meadow Creek areas. Or turn right off FS 245 onto FS 601, and then right at Cliff Lake onto FS 823. Follow this to Meadow Creek Lake. From there FS 821 leads south to Meadow Creek Cow Camp and the Meadow Creek Point and Last Chance Trails. The former provides particularly good views of the Elk Creek area.
• The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area are Rifle Falls and Deep Creek Point.

Setting
The proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area consists of a system of deep canyons that dissect mesa-like highlands that project like fingers from the White River Plateau. In this unit, Hadley Gulch, Elk Creek, Meadow Creek, Deep Creek, Clark Creek, and Mansfield Creek come together to carve through 2,000 feet of earth at Deep Creek Point. Together these drain a massive section of the broad, uplifted plateau.
The divides between creeks are generally flat-topped and coated in spruce/fir and aspen forest mixed with large open grassy meadows. The steeper slopes are thick with Gambel oak brush, and in many places the canyons are lined with sheer cliffs. Elevations in the unit range from 6,200 feet along lower Elk Creek, to 8,400 feet on the rim of Deep Creek Point.

What’s special about it?
The proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area features what is perhaps the most impressive canyon system on the White River National Forest. There is tremendous topographical relief here that has isolated long riparian corridors which lead to vast subalpine grasslands. The area within the USFS Roadless Area receives very few human visitors and has been identified by the CDOW as an area of extremely high priority habitat. The limestone cliffs in the canyons feature caves that provide habitat for rare bats. Big game species use the area extensively, including bighorn sheep, and this is critical winter range for them.

Potential threats
Portions of the proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area are available for oil and gas leasing and development though no currently known leases exist in the area.

Only 16% of the proposed Elk Creek Wilderness Area is protected as a Roadless Area.