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.

Years after loggers' saws tore through these hills, hardwoods again dominate Little Lake Creek Wilderness.

Three major drainages–Pole Creek, Sand Branch, and Little Lake Creek–divide the area, which sits perched on the western edge of the Gulf Coastal Plain. The latter waterway runs the entire length of this relatively narrow Wilderness.

On ridges above the drainages, loblolly and shortleaf pines thrive beneath the plentiful sunlight. But many of the pines are now dead, victims of the Southern pine beetle epidemic of the mid-1980s.

Colonies of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker share their home here with deer, owls, and armadillos. There are also less hiker-friendly critters: snakes slither through poison ivy, ticks wait patiently for their next meal, and mosquitoes whine hungrily (campers: consider this fair warning to bolster your tent with intact mosquito netting).

Deer hunters come in their season.

An abandoned pipeline right-of-way marks the entire western boundary. The Lone Star Hiking Trail crosses the pipeline twice (for about two miles in the north and 1.5 miles in the center) as it loops through the area. The southern portion offers an additional five to six miles of trail. The three parking lots are easily accessible.

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 Little Lake 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 Little Lake Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Texas 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 98-574

Date: October 30, 1984
Acreage: 4,000 acres

Texas Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-574 (10/30/1984) To designate various areas as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the national forests in the state of Texas

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-574 or special provisions for 98-574 or legislative history for 98-574.

Public Law 99-584

Date: October 29, 1986
Acreage: 153 acres

Texas Wilderness Act Amendments of 1986 - Public law 99-584 (10/29/1986) To adjust the boundaries of areas of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the state of Texas

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 99-584 or special provisions for 99-584 or legislative history for 99-584.

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.