Black Ridge Canyons is the Moab Field Office’s one area of congressionally designated wilderness. This was designated in the year 2000, as part of the Colorado Canyons National Conservation Area. This bill designated Black Ridge Canyons (in both Utah and Colorado) as wilderness. Black Ridge Canyons Wildereness is now part of the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.  The Wilderness Area consists of 75,550 acres, of which 5,000 are in Utah. Vegetation is relatively sparse with scattered pinyon-juniper woodland. Recreational use of the area focuses upon visiting the canyons in conjunction with calm water float trips through Ruby Canyon and hiking the canyons to view the arches in Rattlesnake and Mee canyons.  Click here for more information on the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area.

Location: along the south side of the Colorado River within the Dolores Triangle. The Wilderness Area straddles the Utah-Colorado border, with the majority of the acreage being in Colorado. Access to the area is limited to floating down the river, dirt roads from the Glade Park, Colorado area, and hiking in from Colorado National Monument.