The Lizard Head Wilderness is a wilderness area in southwest Colorado. It contains 41,309 acres (167.17 km2) and is jointly managed by the Uncompahgre and San Juan National Forests. It is 10 miles (16 km) southwest of the town of Telluride and is named for a prominent rock formation that is said to look like a lizard's head. Lizard Head itself is 13,113 feet (3,997 m) and is a volcanic spire of crumbling rock. Due to the steepness of the cliffs and the poor quality of the rock for fixing ropes, only experienced mountaineers should attempt to summit the spire. Another 37 miles (60 km) of trails in this infrequently visited wilderness, are also strenuous and should be attempted by more advanced backpackers.
The area includes three prominent fourteeners: El Diente Peak (14,159 feet (4,316 m)), Wilson Peak (14,017 feet (4,272 m)), and Mount Wilson (14,246 feet (4,342 m)). The area includes the headwaters of the west fork of the Dolores River.
Famous quotes containing the words head and/or wilderness:
“I died before bedtime came
But my womb was bellowing
And I felt with my bare fall
A blazing red harsh head tear up
And the dear floods of his hair.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)