Collegiate Peaks Wilderness

With eight fourteeners — peaks exceeding 14,000 feet in elevation — Collegiate Peaks Wilderness probably possesses the highest average elevation of any wilderness in the lower 48. You can climb Mounts Yale, Oxford, Columbia, and Harvard, the state's third highest point, as well as Huron Peak, Missouri Mountain, Mount Belford, and La Plata Peak, the state's fifth highest. About 40 miles of the serpentine Continental Divide snake across the area, and this expansive Wilderness lies in parts of three national forests. Climbing these peaks is a very popular activity, making opportunities for solitude very elusive. Expect to be inundated by people and their dogs on any fourteener trail. More than a dozen trailheads create a situation in which no one ever stands more than five miles from a road. As you travel through the area, you might notice unusual and deep indentations in the boundary line — a legacy of the hunt for gold and other valuable metals that are still sought just outside. The beauty of this place and its ease of access ensure torrents of visitors, especially on weekends. Please help keep wilderness wild by following Leave No Trace practices. In particular, refrain from having camp fires near treeline: the dwarfed Krummholtz trees that grow there are taking a beating from insensitive campers. Designated in 1980 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service.