The Wheeler Geologic Area is a highly eroded

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...

ping of layers of volcanic ash, in the

La Garita Mountains The La Garita Mountains are a high mountain range in the San Juan Mountains, a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains are located in Saguache and Mineral counties in southwestern Colorado and are almost entirely managed as public land ...

of Mineral County, in southern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, 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 wes ...

in the western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

about 10 miles east north-east of Creede. The ash is the result of eruptions from the

La Garita Caldera La Garita Caldera is a large caldera in the San Juan volcanic field in the San Juan Mountains near the town of Creede in southwestern Colorado, United States. It is west of La Garita, Colorado. The eruption that created the La Garita Calde ...

approximately 25 million years ago. The area was designated a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

as Wheeler National Monument from 1908 until 1950 and was Colorado's first National Monument. It is now part of the La Garita Wilderness and administered by the

Rio Grande National Forest Rio Grande National Forest is a 1.86 million-acre (7,530 km²) U.S. National Forest located in southwestern Colorado. The forest encompasses the San Luis Valley, which is the world's largest agricultural alpine valley, as well as one of th ...

. Lying just below the crest of the range at an elevation of 11,960 feet (3645 m), it can be reached by an 8.4-mile hike on the East Bellows Trail ( FS790), or by a difficult 14 mile

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer ca ...

road. The formations are named after Captain George M. Wheeler, who explored and surveyed this area in 1874 for the U.S. Army.

External links

USDA.gov: official site

Wheeler Geologic Area
at

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Sangres.com: photo and maps
Protected areas of Mineral County, Colorado Former National Monuments of the United States Volcanism of Colorado Oligocene volcanism

Further reading

External links