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.

Just miles from New York City's skyscrapers, herons stalk through grassy wetlands and startled white-tailed deer leap over thickets of catbrier and the ubiquitous poison ivy in the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness. Fire Island, now protected as Fire Island National Seashore, shields Long Islanders from the raging Atlantic Ocean. This island attracts springtime rafts of migratory waterfowl bobbing on mainland-side waters and summer swimmers basking on the white beaches bordering the Atlantic.

Fire Island traces a thin line along the coast. Orientated east-west, this barrier island stretches 32 miles long and ranges from 200 yards to one-half mile wide. A seven-mile stretch on the eastern half has been designated Wilderness. The Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness extends from the Wilderness visitor center, west, to Watch Hill. It includes everything from the toe of the primary dune with its patches of seaside plants, and extends across areas of pine forest with hidden groves to the sheltered marshes along the Great South Bay. The Wilderness area does not include the ocean front beaches but provides for a remote and pristine experience. The area provides excellent backcountry camping opportunities and hiking along the trace of the old Burma Road, which ran the full length of what is now the Wilderness. Anglers cast for bluefish, striped bass, winter flounder, among other saltwater species, and scenic views and abundant wildlife attract bird watchers, wildlife viewers, and nature lovers, alike.

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 Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune 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

The Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness and visitor center is located within Fire Island National Seashore just 60 miles east of New York City. Located on the eastern end of Fire Island, the wilderness is only accessible by foot. Parking is available in the adjacent Suffolk County Park, Smith Point, at the southern end of William Floyd Parkway. The western end of the wilderness is accessible from Watch Hill. The Watch Hill ferry operates from Patchogue, May through October. The wilderness area begins at the eastern end of the Watch Hill campground. The wilderness area can also be accessed by private boat by anchoring off in the Great South Bay and wading onto shore.

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 Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness
Google Earth

New York 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 96-585

Date: December 23, 1980
Acreage: 1,363 acres

(No official title, designates Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness) - Public Law 96-585 (12/23/1980) To Designate Certain Lands of the Fire Island National Seashore as the “Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness”, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 96-585 or special provisions for 96-585 or legislative history for 96-585.

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.