Gates of the Mountains Wilderness

Two sons of Chevalier Vendrye, the French explorer, passed through the area known as the Gates of the Mountains as early as 1742, and were probably the first white men to gaze upon its precipices. It was Meriwether Lewis who named the landmark and first left a record of his passage — "from the singular appearance of this place I called it the gates of the mountains" — and it remains one of the most widely recognized landmarks of the Lewis and Clark expedition. There are approximately 53 miles of trails here, some at lower and drier elevations, which makes the area suitable for spring trips when other places are still under snow. The trail network can be reached from several access points, most of them in the Beaver Creek drainage, both above and below the old town of Nelson. Water can be scarce. The trails go through timbered areas as well as some large parks. The Meriwether Fire of 2007 altered the landscape and burned some 20,000 acres; debris flows in the major drainages are common in the spring and have affected several trail segments.