Opinion | 'It’s only a matter of time until the crowds that both plague and bless Moab come east to Colorado’s Dolores River.'
Running along Colorado’s western border with Utah is a secret ecosystem on the edge of a vast desert landscape. Red sandstone rocks give way to lush cottonwood valleys, endless plateaus are covered with ancient piñon pines and aspen groves that shelter elk and deer from bears and lions, and sagebrush flats provide the ecosystems for turkey, grouse and coyote.
In this 2017 file photo boaters park their rafts to hike in the Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Study Area on May 23, 2017. Petroglyphs, pictographs and dinosaur tracks adorn sandstone layers that tower above the river. These lands are already owned by taxpayers but have very little regulation and restriction under BLM and Forest Service rules. Adding a special management area could protect the lands from the degradation that occurs without camping regulations and the overdevelopment that can occur on roads and trails.
There are a half-million acres of public lands in this area separated from the cities of Montrose and Delta by the long and commanding Uncompahgre Plateau down to Lone Mesa State Park and the town of Dolores where the McPhee Reservoir begins the journey of the Dolores River north through Slick Rock back to Gateway before turning to the Utah border.
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