Public access protected as the Weminuche Wilderness grows
June 25, 2025-
Earlier this year we shared the news that we had acquired a 30-acre private inholding in the Weminuche Wilderness of southern Colorado. Now we are thrilled to announce that the property has been transferred to public ownership to be protected as designated wilderness.
Running through the property are both Needle Creek and the Needle Creek Trail, which is used by hikers and climbers to access the very popular Chicago Basin and its surrounding 14,000+ peaks. With flat, buildable stream-side sites, the property was previously at risk of development. Now protected, public access on the trail to Chicago Basin has been ensured for future generations to enjoy. Needle Creek is an important tributary to the Animas River. This water source, along with vibrant aspen groves that stretch from the creek up the slopes of the Needle Mountains, create habitat for a wide range of wildlife. The Needle Creek property scores high for climate change resilience, biodiversity, and landscape connectivity, all important conservation values that will be protected as wilderness.
At just shy of half a million acres, the Weminuche Wilderness is the largest in Colorado. Spanning the continental divide, with an average elevation of over 10,000 feet, its rugged terrain provides important alpine habitat. Needle Creek is the 15th property protected by the Trust in the wilderness area, and builds off the success of the nearby 7-acre Emerald Lake property that the Trust acquired in 2018 and transferred to be added to the wilderness area in 2023.
While the property is now protected as wilderness, we will continue working with the USFS to complete some remaining restoration work this summer, removing the remnants of a hunting camp left by a previous owner. We are encouraged to see transfers of property like Needle Creek still moving forward under the new administration, and are grateful for our wonderful partners at the San Juan National Forest and Region 2 USFS office for working so diligently to move this project through the transfer process.
out much of Colorado’s high country, including deep in what today is designated wilderness, traces of mining history can be found, from mine shafts still framed in timbers to bits of rusted machinery and bean cans. The majority of these silver, gold, and copper mines were small-scale, and the landscapes around them have recovered quickly, wiping away most traces of their camps and wagon trails. These small operations were certainly much different than the kinds of mega-mines we see today, removing entire mountain tops and reshaping vast landscapes to access ore. But they still serve as a reminder of what could have been. Had the boom not turned to bust so quickly, or had the lasting protections of designated wilderness not been established 60 years ago, the basins and ridges of Colorado’s high country might have looked much different today, including those surrounding the Copper Glance Lode property.
