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.

In the language of an early native tribe, Harquahala translates to “running water high up.” This elevated region, set on one of western Arizona's largest desert ranges, was so named for its numerous perennial seeps and springs.

The Harquahalas rise from 2,100 feet to just short of 5,691-foot Harquahala Peak, which sits just outside of Wilderness boundaries. From the upper elevations of this Wilderness, panoramic views includes the surrounding desert and mountains up to 100 miles away.

Natural mountain springs support a rare habitat among Sonoran Desert mountains, a screened interior canyon system with exceptional natural diversity. Rare cacti live here among relict "islands" of chaparral and desert grasslands.

Here you'll find high peaks and foothills, deep rocky canyons and valleys, as well as ridges dropping to bajadas. Common vegetation includes saguaro cactus, ironwood, palo verde, creosote bush, ocotillo, and cholla.

Sunset Canyon falls 1,600 feet from the steep east rim of the mountains. Brown's Canyon, which stretches for nine miles across the northeastern portion, houses the endangered desert tortoise and is seldom visited. This area also sustains the largest mule deer herd in western Arizona, a sizable raptor population, and one of the few increasing desert bighorn sheep herds.

In the 1920s the Smithsonian Institute built an observatory on Harquahala Peak and a rough trail for mules to carry up supplies. The obscure Harquahala Peak Trail runs about 5.4 miles one-way to the ruins of the observatory; rock cairns mark the way.

The rest of the Wilderness offers some of Arizona's most appealing desert solitude . . . but be forewarned, summer temperatures can send the mercury to the top of the thermometer. When conditions are on the milder side, temperatures usually range from 90 degrees Fahrenheit in July to 48 degrees in January.

This area only receives about 6 inches of rainfall, annually.

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 Harquahala Mountains 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 Harquahala Mountains Wilderness
Google Earth

Arizona 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 101-628

Date: November 28, 1990
Acreage: 22,865 acres

Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990 - Public law 101-628 (11/28/1990) To provide for the designation of certain public lands as wilderness in the State of Arizona

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 101-628 or special provisions for 101-628 or legislative history for 101-628.

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.