Like much of the last of Colorado's best country, the Hermosa Creek drainage north of Durango is hardly a secret.

On a warm July weekend, Hermosa Park and trailhead, west of Durango Mountain Resort (aka Purgatory ski area), stirred with people, trailers, trucks and two huge, inflatable flamingos.

On the main Hermosa Trail, ATV jockeys pushed wakes through mud puddles. Knievel- costumed dirt bikers leapt rises, nearly colliding with hike-in anglers.

Just outside the fibrillating heart of Motorville, however, vast tracts of the drainage whose name means "beautiful" in Spanish remain largely untrammeled.

Timbered folds fall to Hermosa Creek. Lovely Colorado River cutthroat trout fin in sparkling tributaries. Meadows declared off-limits to vehicles are abloom with wild rose, columbine and fairy trumpet. It's a virtual wilderness.

So let's make it a real wilderness is what sportsmen seeking official designation are saying about the proposed West Hermosa Creek Wilderness Area.

"This would be the first wilderness area in Colorado specifically pushed by hunters and anglers," said Chris Hunt, spokesman for Trout Unlimited's Public Lands Initiative.

No one is considering evicting the internal combustion mob, just preventing it from making any more inroads.

Hermosa Creek (a tributary of the Animas River) and slopes that sweep up from its west bank to the spine of the La Plata Mountains would remain in their natural state.

The efforts of sportsmen's groups and other conservationists to preserve the area have gained the attention, and support, of U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. John Salazar.

The 80,000 acres proposed for wilderness already are designated roadless, and the San Juan National Forest is considering making it wilderness, among other options, in its latest management review.

The area is home to tons of wildlife, including elk, deer, bighorn sheep, bears, turkeys and grouse. Rising from 8,000 to 13,000 feet, it embraces virgin stands of aspen, spruce, fir and old-growth ponderosa pines.

From the air, the motor parade is invisible and dark forests enfold the drainage. Hermosa Creek carves through an area that land managers say hardly anyone but hunters ever visit.

"It's really a magical area," said Bruce Gordon, pilot and president of EcoFlight, an Aspen-based nonprofit. "I see a lot of country, but that is spectacular."

About 28 miles of Hermosa Creek's main stem hold trout, but the native gem is the Colorado River cutthroat, which almost disappeared until a few pure specimens turned up in isolated headwaters.

Ty Churchwell, president of the Five Rivers chapter of TU, says chapter members will help the Division of Wildlife restore the upper five miles as an all-native trout fishery next spring.

"We want the general public to come in here and experience the river the way it was 100 to 150 years ago," Churchwell said.

Stakeholders are negotiating, and a few issues still need to be worked out, including a land swap with an inholding, plus appeasement of mountain bikers who fear losing access to a segment of the Colorado Trail.