Hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hunting. See Appendix E for a listing of the 11 topo maps covering the roadless area. Turrets and hoodoos grace the north side of lower Casto Canyon. Elevations average 8,000 feet across a variable landscape of gentle plateaus, deep rocky canyons, and steep slopes. Most of the average annual precipitation of 20 inches falls in the form of snow.
Water is scarce, but several of the larger canyons have small year-round streams.
Lower foothills are vegetated with pinyon-juniper and sagebrush grading to spruce, fir, and aspen in the higher country. A blend of aspen parks, grassy slopes, and dense stringers of conifers provide summer range and escape cover for a large number of deer and elk from the Mount Dutton herd. A Powell Expedition survey cairn is just southeast of the high point of 10,426-foot Adams Head about 1 mile by trail from the South Fork of Cottonwood Creek. On average, this country is drier, rougher, and steeper with numerous rock outcrops and only intermittent streams in the larger canyons. Higher elevations in the upper drainages support a mix of spruce, fir, and aspen.