Mad Creek

The Mad Creek RNA includes the complete watershed of the South Fork of Mad Creek and extends westward from the Continental Divide in the Park Range and includes outstanding examples of subalpine coniferous forest, including ribbon forest, tufted hairgrass meadow, alpine tundra, and subalpine wetland and riparian communities, a number of lakes in the upper cirque basins of the RNA, as well as an extensive area of tufted hairgrass grassland along the mountain crest and upper slopes. The Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir forest includes a good example of ribbon forest, caused primarily by wind and snow patterns.