With summer coming in hot, many Coloradans will soon be exploring remote parts of the state’s mountainous terrain.

In a big change compared to last year, outdoor recreators will now be sharing that space with wolves that were reintroduced by the state. It’s important to prepare for a potential – though unlikely – encounter, and part of that preparation involves knowing where wolves may be roaming.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been creating a map each month that shows where wolves were detected in recent weeks, and as wolves have been on the move, they’ve visited the areas around several popular mountain towns and cities.

Here’s a list of noteworthy cities and towns that are located in watersheds where wolves have been detected between March 26 and April 23:

1. Eagle
2. Avon
3. Granby
4. Grand Lake
5. Steamboat Springs
6. Walden
7. Kremmling
8. Red Feather Lakes
9. Silverthorne
10. Craig
11. Hot Sulphur Springs
12. Winter Park

Wolves have been detected close to:

1. Vail
2. Breckenridge
3. Estes Park
4. Georgetown
5. Nederland

Perhaps most notably, reintroduced wolves were detected on the eastern side of the Continental Divide and on the Colorado Front Range.

Those exploring these areas may need to prepare for a potential wolf sighting. While wolves tend to avoid human interaction, a human-wolf encounter could happen. When planning a trip into the backcountry, it may be a good idea to check the most recent report of where wolves have been, but keep in mind that the data lags behind and doesn’t show location in real time.

Find tips on what to do in a wolf encounter here.

Explore more wolf data here.

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