A backpacker tends to a campfire in the Weminuche Wilderness Area.
Brandon Huttenlocher

Wild is the Weminuche – it’s as simple as that. Encompassing 499,777 acres, or three quarters the size of Rhode Island, the Weminuche Wilderness Area is the largest wilderness area in Colorado. Covering a broad swath north of Durango and Pagosa Springs, the Weminuche also boasts three 14,000-foot peaks and a staggering 106 13,000-foot peaks. Filled with everything from low valleys to high tundra, and populated by animals from deer to mountain goats, the Weminuche is one of the last remote areas in Colorado. You can spend days without seeing a soul – that is, if you don’t count the mountain goats who invade camp.

To understand why the Weminuche is so remote and rugged, you need to dig into the geology. Around 70 million years ago a geologic uplift began, building what we now know as the Rocky Mountains. Imagine geologic forces pushing a dome, 100 miles wide, up over 14,000 feet. Following this uplift came volcanic activity. Around 30 million years ago, part of the San Juan Mountains, including the Weminuche Wilderness, became a stratovolcano.



Pigeon and Turret peaks reflect in an alpine lake at sunset on the eastern side of the wilderness area.
Tad Bowman

Roughly 28 million years ago, the dome erupted in what we know as the La Garita Caldera eruption – one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the planet’s history. The dome was splintered, and jagged peaks remained. What we see now is the leftover mountains that have been shaped, twisted and turned by millions of years of erosion. Now you see glacially shaped valleys with beautiful peaks towering over them and rivers twisting and turning in the lowlands. The federal designation as a wilderness area protects the land of the Weminuche and helps keep it remote and wild.

There are several ways to explore the Weminuche, which is pronounced “WEM-in-nooch” and named after a band of the Ute tribe. Many opt for hiking into Chicago Basin. With three 14ers soaring above the basin, it makes for an ideal base camp to bag all three 14ers in one trip. However, because of the craze of climbing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, this basin has become a hot spot for humans.

If you plan to make the 16-mile trek into the basin, it will be well worth it. Twin lakes, mountain goats and views all the way to New Mexico will make this a very special trip. There are two popular ways to hike into Chicago Basin: via Purgatory Flats or Enlich Mesa.

From the Purgatory Flats trailhead, you hike down to the Animas River and follow it upstream to Needleton, where you start your ascent into Chicago Basin. The Purgatory Flats route remains under tree line into the basin. The Enlich Mesa route is 80 percent above tree line. It starts at the end of a 12-mile four-wheel-drive route and traverses Enlich and Silver Mesa until dropping into Chicago Basin.



Mountain goats thrive on the steep and rocky terrain of Chicago Basin.
Jason Hatfield

Chicago Basin is a mere sliver of the Weminuche. With the wilderness so expansive, there are endless other places to explore. From day hikes to multiweek expeditions, you can spend a lifetime exploring the Weminuche and never see everything. To get off the beaten path, look towards the Kodiak High Route. This is a traverse from Vallecito Reservoir to Silverton that climbs over three 13,000-foot passes and travels through Sunlight, Ruby and Vestal basins. Each basin provides its own towering peaks to climb – and “climb” is the operative word, not “hike.”

The Weminuche is steep and rugged. If you get hurt, it will take hours, even days, for help to come. A less technical option is hiking or backpacking into Emerald Lake, a much shorter hike than Chicago Basin or the Kodiak High Route, but the views still give you chills. Essentially, the Weminuche is a “make your own adventure”-type wilderness area. There are micro-trails into nearly every basin; if you have the will to get somewhere, you probably can. And the more remote you go, the fewer people will be there.

You can still be wild for the Weminuche without the long, multiday hikes. Day hike potential is expansive. The entire wilderness area is surrounded by various roads. In some cases, you can drive nearly to the wilderness area border and hike for as long as you see fit. Keep in mind, because of the mania for hiking in the outdoors that blossomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, these places were hit hard with human traffic. The people who call this place home want to protect these wild lands. Visitors need to treat the land with respect and limit their impact.

Still today, there are people who live in and rely on the Weminuche. Ranchers use the Weminuche Wilderness Area for high grazing in the summer. As you are traveling through the mountains, it is not uncommon to run into shepherds with 2,000 head of sheep. Ranchers will hire shepherds from Peru and Argentina to run their herds high in the mountains. It feels as if you are transported into the Andes of South America. These shepherds spend months in the Weminuche watching over their herds. You can be hiking for hours without seeing another person, then break over a ridge and suddenly be in a traffic jam of sheep.

The Weminuche Wilderness is a vast network of protected wild land. In some ways, it is a lucky thing that it has been designated as a wilderness area and not a national park, as that designation would draw thousands more visitors, increasing the human impact on the land and decreasing the opportunities for stillness and solitude. The high peaks, alpine lakes and vast tundra make the Weminuche one of the most unspoiled stretches of mountains in Colorado. Hard to get to, steep, challenging and rugged – wild is the Weminuche. We can only strive keep it that way.


A marmot scampers among the rocks and king’s crown wildflowers.
MaryAnne Nelson