Photos From the Field: Never Summer Wilderness

In early July Wilderness Volunteers completed a service project in the Never Summer Wilderness of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest in northern Colorado.

The Never Summer Wilderness shares its eastern boundary with Rocky Mountain National Park. This 21,000-acre wilderness includes landscapes from forested ridges to steep tundra ranging in elevation from 8,900 to 12,520 feet.  Spruce, fir and lodge-pole pine blanket the lower elevations.  This area receives large amounts of snow, and four of its peaks have names that hint at their cloud-topped heights: Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus and Nimbus.

The popular Baker Gulch trail leads to Never Summer's beautiful Parika Lake, however it has been suffering from a lack of maintenance for nearly a decade and the upper sections of the trail have become nearly impassable due to large fallen trees.

Our volunteers began the week with a Forest Service shuttle in to the Bowen Baker Trail head before backpacking about a mile in and setting up camp in a remote area. During the week the crew worked with a Forest Service wilderness ranger to clear and repair the Baker Gulch trail. Work included removing large fallen trees from the trail with a crosscut saw, clearing brush away from the trail, and placing over 76 rock steppers through marshy areas. 

Each day volunteers were treated to unique ridgeline views of the Never Summer Range and Rocky Mountain National Park as well as a few visits from a resident momma moose with her baby.

BEFORE

AFTER

Want to give something back with Wilderness Volunteers in Colorado's Never Summer Wilderness?

The Spring 2018 projects were released on our website October 2nd & the Summer and Fall 2018 projects will be released December 1, 2017.

Photos by WV Project Leader Benjamin Johnson.