Colorado Horsepack

Located within the Gunnison National Forest, the 129,000-acre La Garita Wilderness remains one of Colorado’s more lightly visited wilderness areas, even though it was an original unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964. “La Garita” means lookout in Spanish. This high Rocky Mountain country provides the sensation of being in a watchtower, high above the surrounding landscape. Our horsepack trip travels through this alpine country, above the tree line. The terrain consists mainly of gently sloping meadows and picturesque alpine bowls. Wildlife abounds in this high country, where visitors commonly see black bears, snowshoe hares, golden eagles, and coyotes. Bobcats and mountain lions live in the area, too, yet seldom show themselves.

From the summit of La Garita’s single fourteener (14,014-foot San Luis Peak), visitors can gaze across the upper Rio Grande Valley and down the long stretch of the San Luis Valley. About 35 miles of the Continental Divide lie well above a sprawling forestland that provides ideal habitat for huge numbers of elk and mule deer, though the animals may winter on the northern slopes when hard winds scour off the snow cover. On the southern slopes in Wason Park and Silver Park, visitors find a surprising ancient forest of towering spruce and fir. This is a land of rushing streams, broad and gentle alpine meadows, fascinating beaver ponds, long talus slopes, and tremendous mountain beauty.

Layers of volcanic basalt comprise the mountains in this area. The manner in which this basalt formed and cooled resulted in long vertical columns of rock, hexagonal in cross section. This has resulted in dramatic vistas filled with towers of rock.

The ideal summers in this area feature typically cool Rocky Mountain temperatures. Sometimes, the daytime temperatures climb, requiring a dip in a mountain stream or lake. Cool temperatures arrive as the sun sets on the La Garita high country.

Gunnison’s human history dates back 6,000 years to the Prehistoric Archaic period when nomadic groups traversed the high mountain valleys of the inner mountain region in search of migrating wildlife. The Mountain Ute Indians, and later mountain men, settled the fertile river valleys, surviving on the abundance of game. Captain John W. Gunnison and an extensive party of explorers in search of a transcontinental railroad route explored the area in 1853. In the late 1870s, prospectors discovered gold and silver. Typical of small western communities located in mountain valleys, Gunnison was shaped by ranching, the advent of the railroad, and mining. More recently, recreation-based tourism has fueled Gunnison’s economy. Approximately two million tourists passed through Gunnison in 1995; winter and summer destinations include Curecanti National Recreation Area, Black Canyon National Monument, and Crested Butte Mountain Ski Resort. Additionally, outdoor recreation enthusiasts including hunters, fishermen, hikers, and mountain bicyclists frequent the public lands surrounding Gunnison on a year round basis.