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.

Originally called the Glacier Primitive Area, this Wilderness holds 44 active glaciers (one spanning 1,220 acres) and many ragged mountain peaks in the northern half of the Wind River Mountain Range. Situated along the Continental Divide, this area displays incomparable beauty and grandeur. It holds 13,804-foot Gannett Peak, which is the highest point in Wyoming.

The western border is the Continental Divide, shared with the Bridger Wilderness. The eastern border is shared with the Wind River Roadless Area, a part of the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Carved by glaciers through granite and limestone rock, the area contains splendid alpine meadows, rocky plateaus, and stands of virgin timber. Precipitous canyons shadow tumbling streams, and granitic cirques hold more than 60 crystalline lakes.

Many species utilize these mountains as habitat, including elk, mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, black and grizzly bears, picas, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, mountain lion and a variety of trout.

Named for Tom 'Half-Hand' Fitzpatrick, a mountain man and sometime partner of Jim Bridger, this Wilderness is extremely rugged with expanses of bare granite rock.

Many miles of trails provide travel routes through this Wilderness.

No season is free of frost, and snowfall is possible any day of the year.

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 Fitzpatrick 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 Fitzpatrick Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Wyoming 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 94-557

Date: October 19, 1976
Acreage: 197,600 acres

(No official title, designates Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses) - Public law 94-557 (10/19/1976) To designate certain lands as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System and to provide designation for certain lands as Wilderness Study Areas

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 94-557 or legislative history for 94-557.

Public Law 94-567

Date: October 20, 1976
Acreage: -6,497 acres

(No official title, designates National Park Service wildernesses) - Public Law 94-567 (10/20/1976) To designate certain lands within units of the National Park System as wilderness; to revise the boundaries of certain of these units; and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 94-567 or special provisions for 94-567 or legislative history for 94-567.

Public Law 98-550

Date: October 30, 1984
Acreage: 6,497 acres

Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-550 (10/30/1984) To designate certain lands in the state of Wyoming for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, to release other forest lands for multiple use management, to withdraw designated wilderness areas in Wyoming from minerals activity, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-550 or special provisions for 98-550 or legislative history for 98-550.

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.