Sloan Peak

26,407 acres (41.2 square miles)

How to get there
The proposed Sloan Peak Wilderness Area is located 3 miles east of Basalt and about 9 miles north of Aspen.

• To approach the north side of the proposed Wilderness Area, start from Basalt. Midland Avenue becomes the Fryingpan Road (FS 105) and heads east. As you drive up the Fryingpan River, the roadless area is on your right. At the lower end of Ruedi Reservoir, the Rocky Fork Trail (1931) enters the unit and climbs up to Kobey Park above Lenado. This is the only hiking access from the north. From the Meredith Guard Station, at the upper end of Ruedi Reservoir, the Conroy Gulch Jeep Trail (FS 522) makes up the east boundary of the unit.
• The Arbaney-Kittle Trail (2186) travels along the divide across the proposed Wilderness Area. Its western trailhead is located about two miles southeast of Basalt. From State Highway (SH) 82, turn onto Bishop Drive into the Holland Hills subdivision and follow signs to the Arbaney-Kittle Trailhead.
• You may also access the area from the Red Rim Road (FS 534; 4WD). This is better to hike than to drive. This road begins at the upper end of Snowmass Canyon. Turn off of SH 82 onto Upper River Road (County Road 17), cross the river, and make a sharp left onto Lower River Road (CR 16). Red Rim Road will be on your right. This route climbs up to Triangle Peak and beyond to meet the Arbaney-Kittle Trail (2186).
• To approach the southeast section of the unit, approach from Woody Creek, by taking Lenado Road (CR 18) to the southeast. The Lenado Road becomes FS 103 at the forest boundary. Go past Lenado toward Larkspur Mountain and go straight onto Kobey Park Road (FS 508) at a fork. A right turn onto FS 528 will bring you to the upper Rocky Fork Trailhead (1931). FS 508 passes through a rat’s nest of ineffectively closed timber roads that sit on the southern boundary of the proposed Wilderness Area. The eastern end of the Arbaney-Kittle Trail is here, on FS 513, in the Kobey Park area.
• The USGS 7 1⁄2’ quads for the proposed Sloan Peak Wilderness Area are Meredith, Ruedi Reservoir, Woody Creek, and Toner Reservoir.

Setting
The proposed Sloan Peak Wilderness Area is located on the divide between the lower Fryingpan and Roaring Fork Rivers. The divide itself is a rolling ridge with very steep slopes falling away to the rivers on either side. These slopes are highly dissected by numerous minor creeks. In the eastern portion of the unit, Rocky Fork Creek carves a spectacular 1,500 foot-deep canyon through the sandstone bedrock.
The area has a wide diversity of vegetation from Engelmann spruce/subalpine fir forest on the divide, Douglas fir in the draws, aspen stands in between, to Gambel oak and sagebrush on the steep hillsides. The elevations range from 7,200 feet near the Roaring Fork River, to 10,700 feet in the Kobey Park area.

What’s special about it?
The proposed Sloan Peak Wilderness Area has great topographical diversity and a wide range of habitat types. This large area is a continuous mid-elevation corridor from the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness to the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan Rivers. While the gentle terrain to the southeast of the unit has been heavily logged, the steep slopes of this unit have discouraged human intrusion and development, leaving the area quite wild. Although the Arbaney-Kittle Trail along the divide, and the Rocky Fork Trail both receive regular use, including from mountain-bikers, the area as a whole retains it primeval character and influence — “the imprint of mans work [is] substantially unnoticeable.”
Cerise Gulch, in the western portion of the proposed Wilderness Area, has been identified by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program as a potential 2,400-acre Proposed Conservation Area. This is primarily due to its excellent representation of lower-elevation plant communities. The area also contains valuable winter range for big game. The deep and narrow canyon of Rocky Fork Creek is a natural spectacle unlike anything else in the Fryingpan or Roaring Fork watersheds.

Potential threats
There is certainly potential for further timber harvesting in the Kobey Park area. This would necessitate the construction of even more timber roads, which would likely later be used by dirtbikers. Dirtbikers have illegally developed a network of loop trails in the canyons between Triangle Peak and Sloan Peak and this activity may likely metastasize throughout the area if not protected by the clear and enforceable management direction provided by Wilderness designation. 

Other info
The USFS omitted 11,339 roadless acres from the Sloan Peak Roadless Area on the east edge. This is because a swath of private parcels exists between the Roadless Area and roadless acres adjacent to the Wilderness. On the south side, around Red Canyon, they derive their logic from regular, illegal motorcycle use that occurs on trails in that area. Illegally established routes should not preclude otherwise wild areas from enjoying the protections of the Wilderness Act - in fact, this illegal activity is all the more reason to protect special places like this.  According to conservation groups, the size of the Sloan Peak Roadless Area is 31,438 acres (49.0 square miles)!