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.

Snuggled in between the more spectacular Colorado Wildernesses of Holy Cross on the north, Maroon Bells-Snowmass on the west, and Collegiate Peaks on the south, Hunter-Fryingpan lies all but forgotten. It rises to the Continental Divide, sharing its eastern border and the divide with Mount Massive Wilderness. The two are one geographically speaking, and almost became one legislatively. Holding the headwaters of Hunter Creek and the Fryingpan River, many streams in this area provide excellent habitats for large numbers of trout. Here you'll find many of the unnamed and tortured peaks of the Williams Mountains. Forests of aspen in the lower elevations, as well as spruce and fir higher up, are thick and dark, and open on alpine tundra dappled colorfully with summer wildflowers. In the silence of this Wilderness, you'll probably see wildlife that includes elk, mule deer, and secretive smaller, fur-bearing animals. A rich forest of 8,300 acres along Spruce Creek on the northwest side was added to the original Wilderness in 1993.

About 65 miles of trail cross the area, climbing up drainages into the Williams Mountains. The Lost Man Trail up Lost Man Creek crosses South Fork Pass and continues down the South Fork of the Fryingpan River (about 10 miles distance), providing access to the heart of the Wilderness. Many opportunities for solitude exist here.

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 Hunter-Fryingpan 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 Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Colorado 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 95-237

Date: February 24, 1978
Acreage: 8,330 acres

Endangered American Wilderness Act - Public law 95-237 (2/24/1978) To designate certain endangered public lands for preservation as wilderness, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 95-237 or special provisions for 95-237 or legislative history for 95-237.

Public Law 103-77

Date: August 13, 1993
Acreage: 74,450 acres

Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 - Public Law 103-77 (8/13/1993) Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 103-77 or special provisions for 103-77 or legislative history for 103-77.

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.