Lizard Head Wilderness Area

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Located in San Juan and Uncompahgre National Forests

Neighboring towns: Telluride, Ophir, Silverton, Ouray, Ridgway, Dolores, Stoner

Three rugged fourteeners skirted by flowing forests of white-barked aspen characterize the Lizard Head Wilderness.

Lizard Head Wilderness is a land of ragged mountain splendor, with lovely cirque lakes, fish living in swift mountain streams that often plunge over dramatic waterfalls and a spruce-fir-forest opened by expanses of alpine vegetation. Magnificent golden aspen blanket the lower slopes in vast unbroken reaches every fall. Human use is light on about 37 miles of strenuous trails.

Named for a prominent spire near Lizard Head Pass, this area contains the westernmost 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado. Located in the San Juan Mountain, these fourteeners provide much of the recreational allure of the area, but they are not for the fainthearted. Mount Wilson and El Diente ("the tooth") post two of the most difficult climbs in the state; the exposed knife-edged ridge that connects the peaks can cause an apoplectic reaction among acrophobics. Many visitors to Lizard Head Wilderness are drawn to the magnificent unbroken expanses of aspen draping the area's lower slopes. To top it off, the elegant form of Dolores Peak stands like a silent sentinel, one of the last peaks of the San Juans before the Rockies fade into the arid, desiccated canyons of the Colorado Plateau.

Like the other high peaks of the San Juans, the three fourteeners in Lizard Head consist of igneous intrusions - molten rock that stopped short of the surface and cooled into granite - denser and more resistant than the surrounding volcanic rocks. The Lizard Head formation is an exception to this rule; this free-standing spire is a volcanic neck that crumbled into its present form. Climbing guidebooks call 13,113 foot Lizard Head the most difficult summit in Colorado and do not recommend attempting it because its rock is rotten and unsafe. Instead, walk to the base of the 400 foot formation and admire its beauty from below.

Size: 41,193 acres

Elevation: 9,000 to 14,246 feet

Miles of trails: 37

Year designated: 1980

Hunting areas: 70

NOTE: Eloquent descriptions of our wilderness areas provided by Mark Pearson, author of "The Complete Guide to Colorado's Wilderness Areas", Westcliffe Publishers, Englewood, CO. The book also contains many beautiful pictures by renowned photographer and Colorado resident John Fielder.