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 Beaver Creek Wilderness is a secluded hardwood forest in southern Kentucky, and is located within the boundaries of the Beaver Creek Wildlife Management Area. The Wilderness is almost totally enclosed by towering sandstone cliffs. Below these high walls you can find natural arches formed by the elements and rock shelters used by Native Americans and early settlers.

Much of the year the forest is alive with flowering trees, shrubs, and low-lying plants. Many species of wildlife make their home here, including wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, red and gray foxes, rabbits, muskrats, mink and raccoons. Eastern black bear populations also flourish within the wilderness and surrounding forest.

The eastern mixed mesophytic forest is a dynamic ecosystem. The forest continually changes through time as a result of disturbance events such as wildfire, tornados, ice storms, and insect infestations. These events create opportunities for new growth and changes species diversity within the forest. The remnant impacts of storm events within the Beaver Creek Wilderness provide an excellent opportunity to experience the dynamics of forest succession.

Beaver Creek Wilderness is part of the Beaver Creek Wildlife Management Area.

Fishing, hunting, hiking and primitive camping are among the recreation activities you may enjoy in this wild area. Hikers should be prepared to encounter numerous trees that have fallen on designated trails.

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 Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Kentucky 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 93-622

Date: January 3, 1975
Acreage: 5,500 acres

(Known as the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act) - Public law 93-622 (1/3/1975) To further the purposes of the Wilderness Act by designating certain acquired lands for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, to provide for study of certain additional lands for such inclusion, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 93-622 or special provisions for 93-622 or legislative history for 93-622.

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.