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.

The Hercules Glades Wilderness protects some of the most scenic landscapes in Missouri. This Wilderness features open grasslands, forested knobs, steep rocky hillsides, limestone outcroppings, and a maze of narrow drainages carved by water. The high points of Coy Bald and Pilot Knob rise over 600 feet above Long Creek, one of only two year-round water sources (the other is Cane Creek). Spring brings vibrant blooms of redbuds and dogwoods, while fall transforms the area with the brilliant colors of smoke trees and maples. Prairie grass glades punctuate forests dominated by eastern red cedar and oak, providing habitats for deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, turkeys, and quail. Copperheads and rattlesnakes are present. Rare sightings include roadrunners, tarantulas, and collared lizards. As Missouri’s second-largest wilderness area, Hercules Glades is small but easily accessible, with 31 miles of maintained foot and horse trails covering nearly every ridge and hollow. An unnamed primary east-west trail is easy to follow from parking lots on either end. Hiking is moderately challenging, and backcountry camping is permitted. Whether on or off trail, this Wilderness offers an opportunity to backpack the best of wild Missouri.

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 Hercules-Glades 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 Hercules-Glades Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Missouri 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: 12,315 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.

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.