Rio Grande National Forest

Encircling the San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado, Rio Grande National Forest protects 1.86 million acres spanning from the 7,600-foot high desert floor to the 14,345-foot summit of Blanca Peak, one of Colorado's most prominent fourteeners. The forest safeguards the headwaters of the Rio Grande, one of North America's great rivers, as it begins its 1,900-mile journey from the Continental Divide to the Gulf of Mexico. The Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado's largest wilderness area at over 499,000 acres, stretches across the forest's western reaches with rugged peaks, alpine lakes, and the Continental Divide Trail.\n\nThe Wheeler Geologic Area, once a national monument, features otherworldly volcanic tuff spires and pinnacles eroded into fantastical shapes, accessible only by a challenging 14-mile round-trip hike or horseback ride. The forest's high valleys and streams harbor one of the last strongholds of the rare Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Colorado's state fish and the only trout species native to the Rio Grande basin. Vast spruce-fir forests, expansive aspen groves, and open mountain parks provide critical winter range for large elk herds and summer habitat for mule deer, black bears, and mountain lions.