2 day hike, Big Creek waterfall ?, camp 1 in a burned out zone, over a couple hills to camp, passed one group who said they had a n elk herd come through, nice day hike where jim did a short solo hike, wolves howled, great views, next day short hike to rocky knoll, didnt want to dscend further, nice campste by lakes, nice hike out avoided burtn area, played loud music got dirty looks lol

The Mount Zirkel Wilderness lies within the Routt National Forest in northwestern Colorado. It was one of the original areas protected under the 1964 Wilderness Act and has since been expanded twice to its present size of 160,648 acres. This Wilderness area is home to the headwaters of the Elk, Encampment and North Platte Rivers. It straddles the Continental Divide and encompasses the rugged Sawtooth Range, as well as portions of the Park and Sierra Madre ranges.

The Wilderness is named after Mount Zirkel (12180 ft), the highest peak in the Park range. Clarence King, one of the leaders of the Fortieth Parallel Survey named it after German geologist Ferdinand Zirkel (1838-1912), a pioneer in the study of the optical characteristics of thin slices of rock under a microscope (petrography).

The purpose of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (1867 to 1872; "Fortieth Parallel Survey") was to study and describe the natural resources within a 100 mile border around the Union and Central Pacific railroads from northeastern California, through Nevada, to eastern Wyoming. The comprehensive survey, under the direction of A. A. Humphreys (military general) and Clarence King (geologist), mapped the area along 40th parallel (they couldnt name it "whats right next to the railroads that we can mine, harvest, or shoot" could they?), studying the geology, looking for gold deposits, and collecting plants and animals.

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