[2][3][4] Some areas within the wilderness display bedrock composed of metamorphic schists with large garnet crystals.

The southern portion of the wilderness is largely made up of a unique habitat called ribbon forest, formed when large amounts of snow and wind keep tree growth restricted to north–south bands of trees, mostly about twenty feet across.

The Buffalo Pass and Mad Creek regions receive more snowfall than anywhere else in Colorado.

The central portion contains the wilderness's highest peaks and encompasses alpine tundra.

North of this, the lower elevations of the Encampment River headwaters are covered in dense lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forest, which was partially burned in the Beaver Creek Fire of summer 2016.