Colorado has 41 designated wilderness areas, ranging from the small, such as the 8,095-acre Byers Peak Wilderness Area, to the immense, the 492,410-acre Weminuche Wilderness in southern Colorado.

In 1919, a young U.S. Forest Service ranger named Arthur Carhart was sent to high, remote reaches of northwest Colorado to scout land for homes and roads to be built. He came to a clearing, where a ...