Visit Wilderness

Search for a wilderness as the destination for your next outdoor adventure.

Bob Marshall Wilderness Area, Minnesota

Why Visit Wilderness?

While wilderness can be appreciated from afar—through online content, television, or books—nothing compares to experiencing it firsthand. Activities like camping, hiking, or hunting allow you to fully enjoy the recreational, ecological, spiritual, and health benefits that wilderness areas offer. These areas provide “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation,” chances to observe wildlife, moments to renew and refresh, and the physical benefits of outdoor exercise. In many wilderness areas, you can even bring your well-behaved dog.

Learn more about the diverse ways in which we benefit from wilderness and threats wilderness areas face today.

Ever since fire put an end to a devastating logging period, natural splendor has regained a strong foothold in this Wilderness, the largest in Tennessee. You can actually find stands of virgin forest in some of the more isolated regions.

Three steep-sided ridges run west from the long, high ridge of the Unicoi Mountains: Brush Mountain, Pine Ridge, and Sassafras Ridge. Narrow steep-walled valleys of streams divide these smaller ridges, draining swiftly westward. Elevations range from 1,400 feet to about 4,600 feet, with only a few of the rugged upper terrain's slopes inclined less than 30 degrees.

The Wilderness contains the entire upper drainage of Citico Creek, which consists of the North and South Forks and at least eight clear-running tributaries. The Wilderness shares its eastern border with Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness of Tennessee and North Carolina.

Thirteen trails totaling 57.4 miles provide access to much of the Wilderness. Most of the paths at lower elevations follow old tramways or roads with gentle inclines, but may require "wet" crossings (typically streams). Upper-elevation trails grow faint and sometimes remarkably steep.

The 10.6-mile Fodderstack Trail, often used by horsepackers, runs along the Unicoi Mountains, passing near the crests of Big Fodderstack and Little Fodderstack.

Several trails lead into the neighboring Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness and North Carolina.

Leave No Trace

How to follow the seven standard Leave No Trace principles differs in different parts of the country (desert vs. Rocky Mountains). Click on any of the principles listed below to learn more about how they apply in the Citico Creek Wilderness.

Plan Ahead and Prepare
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Dispose of Waste Properly
Leave What You Find
Minimize Campfire Impacts
Respect Wildlife
Be Considerate of Other Visitors

For more information on Leave No Trace, Visit the Leave No Trace, Inc. website.

Location

Maps

Digital and paper maps are critical tools for wilderness visitors. Online maps can help you plan and prepare for your visit ahead of time. You can also carry digital maps with you on your GPS unit or other handheld GPS device. Having a paper map with you in the backcountry, as well as solid orienteering skills, however, ensures that you can still route-find in the event that your electronic device fails.

Online Maps

Interactive Map of the Citico Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Tennessee Wildernesses

Printed Maps

Fetching MyTopo from Database

USGS Store

Rules & Regulations

Motorized equipment and equipment used for mechanical transport is generally prohibited in all wilderness areas. This includes the use of motor vehicles, motorboats, motorized equipment, bicycles, hang gliders, wagons, carts, portage wheels, and the landing of aircraft including helicopters.

Wilderness-Specific Regulations

Learn more about why regulations may be necessary in wilderness.

Contacts

Applicable Wilderness Law(s)

Public Law 98-578

Date: October 30, 1984
Acreage: 16,000 acres

Tennessee Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-578 (10/30/1984) To designate certain lands in the Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, as wilderness areas, and to allow management of certain lands for other purposes than wilderness

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-578 or legislative history for 98-578.

Want to Volunteer for Wilderness?

People who volunteer their time to steward our wilderness areas are an essential part of wilderness management. Contact the following groups to inquire about volunteer opportunities. Groups are listed alphabetically by the state(s) in which the wilderness is located.