The James Peak Wilderness is a

U.S. Wilderness Area The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas is coordinated by the Na ...

in north central

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

in the

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

and Roosevelt national forests. The wilderness area borders

Indian Peaks Wilderness The Indian Peaks Wilderness is a wilderness area in north central Colorado managed jointly by the United States Forest Service and the National Park Service within the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and small parts of the southern sectio ...

to the north and the James Peak Protection Area to the west.

Geography

The wilderness area encompasses immediately east of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not c ...

in Gilpin County and

Clear Creek County Clear Creek County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,397. The county seat is Georgetown. Clear Creek County is part of the Denver metropolitan area. History Clear Creek County ...

. The wilderness is named after its second tallest mountain, James Peak. Within its boundaries are 30 miles (48 km) of trails.

Parry Peak Parry Peak, elevation , is a summit in the Front Range of central Colorado. The peak is on the continental divide southeast of Winter Park in the Arapahoe National Forest. The name honors Charles Christopher Parry, a botanist who made extensive ...

is the highest peak in the James Peak Wilderness, at .

History

The wilderness was established by H.R.1576 in the

107th Congress 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

(2001). James Peak was named after Edwin James, pioneer and botanist. Originally

Pikes Peak Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. The town of Manitou S ...

was named James Peak prior to Pike's exploration journey. After the renaming to Pikes Peak, the current James Peak was named.

References

{{Authority control Protected areas of Clear Creek County, Colorado Protected areas of Gilpin County, Colorado IUCN Category Ib Wilderness areas of Colorado Protected areas established in 2001 Arapaho National Forest Roosevelt National Forest 2001 establishments in Colorado