Wagon Wheel Gap - Mineral County, CO
Posted by: 
cldisme
N 37° 46.016 W 106° 48.521
13S E 340694 N 4181496
Wagon Wheel Gap is easily found on Colorado State Highway 149.
Waymark Code: WM96ZC
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 07/07/2010
Views: 8
WAGON WHEEL GAP, 109.1 m. (8,500 alt., 35 pop.), is a resort where many wealthy Coloradoans maintain summerhouses. Several mineral springs known to the Indians have been developed here. Numerous streams offer good trout fishing.
State 149 passes through the Gap, a narrow, highly-colored gorge barely accommodating highway and river, named for a discarded wheel beside an old trail in 1873. The wheel presumably was dropped by a party of prospectors led by Charles Baker, who, ordered by the Ute to leave camp near what isnow Animas City, obeyed with such alacrity that their supplies and equipment were scattered along the trail. In summer months this region is carpeted with white mountain daisies, goldenrod, purple asters, and fragile star flowers.
Colorado, A Guide to the Highest State (1941) - Tour 21; Page 433
Wagon Wheel Gap can be visited from one of two turnouts at either end of the gap on Colorado State Highway 149 (West end:
N 37° 45.973', W 106° 49.102' East end:
N 37° 46.066', W 106° 48.292'). Both turnouts are located on the south side (eastbound) of the road.
The gap is constricted with not only State Highway 149, but also the Rio Grande River and railroad tracks.