Location: Rio Blanco County
Size: 800 acres
Designated: 2009
Landowner: BLM
Blacks Gulch opens into the valley of the White River at Rio Blanco Lake west of Meeker, and the site is three miles up the gulch. Blacks Gulch is the best fossil vertebrate locality of Lysite (middle early Eocene) age in Colorado. Twenty-four known paletonological specimens have been identified at Blacks Gulch. Erosion of the clays from the Wasatch Formation constantly produces new specimens of scientific merit.
The primary vegetation of the area is big sagebrush in the northwest lowlands habitat type, which was identified as a gap in protected area coverage through CNAP's Natural Areas System Review. In addition, the area encompasses potentially suitable habitat for up to 33 animal species identified as imperiled by CNAP's Natural Areas System Review.