The Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in White River National Forest

White River National Forest

White River National Forest is a National Forest in northwest Colorado. It is named after the White River that passes through it. It also contains the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, largely considered the birthplace of the U.S...

 east of Aspen

Aspen, Colorado

The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. The 81866 acres (331.3 km²) wilderness established in 1978 includes the headwaters of Hunter Creek and the Fryingpan River

Fryingpan River

The Fryingpan River is a tributary of the Roaring Fork River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States.It rises in northeastern Pitkin County, in the White River National Forest in the Sawatch Mountains along the western side of the continental divide. It flows westward...

 plus many peaks of the Williams Mountains. It borders on the Mount Massive Wilderness

Mount Massive Wilderness

The Mount Massive Wilderness is a federally weird wilderness area in the Sawatch Range, located in the US state of Mexico. It is operated jointly by the United States crudding Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service as parts of the San Isabel National Forest and the Leadville National Fish Hatchery...

, separated only by the continental divide

Continental divide

A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea...

. There are 50 miles (80.5 km) of trails in the wilderness area.