Visit Wilderness
Search for a wilderness as the destination for your next outdoor adventure.
Why Visit Wilderness?
Learn more about the diverse ways in which we benefit from wilderness and threats wilderness areas face today.
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Search for a wilderness as the destination for your next outdoor adventure.
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.
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 Lee Metcalf Wilderness.
For more information on Leave No Trace, Visit the Leave No Trace, Inc. website.
Hiking access to Bear Trap Canyon is from the north end of the canyon only. To reach the trailhead, follow State Highway 84 west from Bozeman. Just before the highway crosses the Madison River, and directly across from the Red Mountain Campground, a gravel road intersects the highway on the left and leads upstream on the east side of the river to the trailhead.
Floating access is from the south end of the canyon, near the Madison Powerhouse. The boat launch provides access to a Class IV segment of whitewater river through the canyon --experienced boaters only. Floaters can reach the canyon from U.S. Highway 287, 7 miles north of Ennis, at McAllister. Turn east on a gravel road towards Ennis Lake, follow for approximately 7 miles -- past the lake, across a bridge, into the canyon, past the dam, to the powerhouse. Floaters should unload at the launch site, but park upstream in the Fall Creek parking area (interpretive site). Do not park at the powerhouse!
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.
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.
Date: October 31, 1983
Acreage: 259,000 acres
Lee Metcalf Wilderness and Management Act of 1983 - Public law 98-140 (10/31/1983) To establish the Lee Metcalf Wilderness and Management Area in the State of Montana, and for other purposes
For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-140 or special provisions for 98-140 or legislative history for 98-140 for this law.
The Bear Trap Canyon Wilderness Visitors Guide is available upon request.
Hiking, fishing, whitewater rafting and kayaking, hunting, backpacking.
Weather conditions vary greatly, even within the same day! Be prepared for your trip into the wilderness by bringing clothing and equipment essential for safe travel.
Be alert for rattlesnakes, bears, and other wildlife, as well as poison ivy.
Whitewater boaters should be experienced, and equipped to safely navigate Class IV whitewater. As river flows increase above 2,200 cfs difficulty increases, and at very high flows is not safely runnable by even the most experienced boaters.
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.