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ODJQ16 September. The 1972 visitation appears to be increasing at even a faster rate, although on a parkwide basis the backcountry is not yet at capacity. The 56 designated camp areas have 248 individual sites in the proposed wilderness. When full to capacity, including group areas, they can handle about 2,000 campers per night. Shadow Mountain National Recreation Area, dominated by three lakes, borders the park on the southwest. This area provides opportunities for the less primitive recreational activities, to include boating, vehicle and boat camping, fishing, water skiing, hunting, snowmobil- ing, etc. Four public campgrounds provide 360 family-sized sites in the 29-square-mile area. Three national forests also border most of the park. The Indian Peaks area south of the park in the Arapaho National Forest, the Never Summer Mountains in the Routt National Forest west of the park, and several small pieces north of the park in Roosevelt National Forest are being studied for wilderness consideration. The designation of these con- tiguous areas as wilderness would support the park's wilderness areas. The Rawah Wilderness Area, previously established, lies about ten miles from the northwest corner of the park in the Roosevelt National Forest. The Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area in Routt National Forest lies 35 miles to the west, and the Gore Range-Eagle's Nest Primitive Area in the Arapaho-White River National Forests is 35 miles southwest. Rocky Mountain National Park lies in north central Colorado along the Continental Divide or "Front Range" and has an area of 410 square miles. Elevations range from 7,640 on the east side to 14,256 on Longs Peak. About one-third of the area and 107 named mountain peaks are over 11,000 feet in elevation. The mountains are formed by a series of granitic batholiths intruded into precambrian mica-schists and pegmatites. Vol- canic activity has more recently altered the west side of the park in the Never Summer and Specimen Mountain areas, The physiography of the east slope is characterized by steep cliffs and U-shaped valleys as altered by local pleistocene glaciation. Lateral moraines running east and west characterize lower elevations. The generally more level rolling alpine tundra areas were apparently not glaciated. On the west, the mountains fall away less steeply to the Upper Colorado River (Kawuneeche) Valley. The soils are generally infertile and sandy with poor development from decomposed granitic substrates. Bottom and swale areas show the best soil development and related vegetation. The climate is typically mountainous with the lower east side (Estes Park) being characterized by low precipitation, about 16 inches annu- ally, falling mostly in spring and summer. Temperatures are moderate, 13