17,587 acres
Description
Roubideau Creek has carved one of Colorado’s most unique canyons. Named for French fur trapper Antoine Robidoux, the canyon originates in subalpine spruce and aspen forests high on the Uncompahgre Plateau before it flows 20 miles north to the Gunnison River. Congress protected the national forest portion of Roubideau in 1993. The BLM portion encompasses the lower eight miles where the canyon becomes more arid, with rock buttresses, freestanding pinnacles, pinyon-juniper woodland, and a meandering stream lined with cottonwoods. Because the expanded Roubideau Wilderness spans life zones from upper Sonoran desert at 5,000 feet to the subalpine at 9,500 feet, it provides a rare opportunity to preserve an ecologically diverse canyon that would greatly enrich the National Wilderness Preservation System.
