Limestone Ridge

Location: Moffat County
Size: 1350 acres
Designated: 1990
Land Manager: The Bureau of Land Management

Limestone Ridge supports a cross-section of Great Basin vegetation types in excellent condition, including three high quality native plant communities which are now rare in Colorado: curlleaf mountain mahogany woodlands, pinyon pine - Utah juniper woodlands with native bunchgrass understory, and limestone barrens communities.  The limestone barrens contain cushion plants that are more typical of alpine environments, here occurring at lower elevations on rocky barrens of limestone substrate.  The regional endemic Penstemon yampaensis (Yampa beardtongue) is also found here.  The ridge itself crowns the eastern end of Cold Spring Mountain, a large, relatively flat-topped ridge which is an erosional remnant of  the northeast limb of the Uinta anticline.  The Mississippian limestone capping the ridge is more than 300 million years old.