White River National Forest

Nestled in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 2.3 million acre White River National Forest is the top recreation Forest in the nation.

Home to world-renowned ski resorts and the birthplace of Wilderness, the White River has something to offer every outdoor enthusiast.

The White River National Forest is home to 8 well known Wilderness areas.

Research what regulations are in place and what preperations you need to take before entering Wilderness.

This section is also home to facts and historical information.

The White River National Forest, with headquarters in Glenwood Springs, is the largest national forest in Colorado and the 12th largest in the nation.

The forest covers almost 2.3 million acres in the central Rocky Mountains, stretching west from the Continental Divide at the Eisenhower Tunnel to the resorts of Vail and Aspen, and north to the ranching communities of Meeker and Buford.

White River includes seven ranger districts located in Aspen, Carbondale, Dillon, Eagle, Meeker, Minturn and Rifle and 12 ski areas including the Aspen/Snowmass complex, Vail/Beaver Creek Resorts and all the Summit County resorts.

The alpine skiing makes White River the national leader in ski area capacity, and the 10th Mountain Trail Association and Braun Hut systems have made backcountry hut skiing a major recreational activity in the region.

The forest encompasses parts of or the entirety of seven wilderness areas including the Flat Tops, Eagles Nest, Hunter-Fryingpan, Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Collegiates, Holy Cross, and the Raggeds.

The White River National Forest includes a variety of scenic waterways, from rivers to waterfalls to reservoirs.

Within the 735,000 acres of wilderness are such nationally renowned areas as the Maroon Bells, Trapper's Lake and the amphitheater, and Mount Holy Cross.

White River also is home to native bighorn sheep, large amounts of deer and North America's largest elk herd, estimated at approximately 40,000 animals.

Other unique and scenic areas in Glenwood Springs include Glenwood Canyon, with its $40 million-per-mile engineering marvel of a combined highway, river, railroad and trail system.

Also Glenwood is home to one of the most popular and scenic trails in state at Hanging Lake, where water shoots from Spouting Rock and flows across a fault in waterfalls into a cool, scenic lake.