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.

Rugged terrain and winding canyons characterize the Lusk Creek Wilderness, offering an unusually diverse topography for Illinois. This Wilderness protects broad, relatively flat ridge tops and terraces that overlook narrow ravines and deep sandstone gulches. Throughout the area, you’ll find sheltered caves, sinkholes, and sheer rock walls that rise up to 200 feet above the creeks. Lusk Creek itself is considered one of the state's highest-quality streams, running year-round along with several other waterways in the region. Anglers can fish for bass and bluegill in its waters.

You may also discover small tracts of old-growth timber and spring wildflowers, including wild columbine and French's shooting star. The Indian Kitchen Trailhead, located on the west side of the Wilderness, features a small parking lot. This 1.5-mile trail begins across the road from the parking area and leads to a precipice known as Indian Kitchen, situated at a hairpin turn in Lusk Creek Canyon. Evidence suggests that humans utilized the "Kitchen" in prehistoric times, potentially as long as 10,000 years ago.

The 160-mile River-to-River Trail, completed in 1996, crosses Illinois from Battery Rock on the Ohio River to Devil's Backbone Park on the Mississippi, providing a pathway through Lusk Creek Wilderness. This trail connects all seven Wilderness areas in Shawnee National Forest, with the 18-mile section from Garden of the Gods Wilderness across Lusk Creek often described as the most wild stretch in the Midwest. Hiking here may be more strenuous than in most of Illinois. No permits are required for trail use or camping, but since several non-system trails exist, map and compass use is recommended.

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 Lusk 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 Lusk Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Illinois 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 101-633

Date: November 28, 1990
Acreage: 6,838 acres

Illinois Wilderness Act of 1990 - Public law 101-633 (11/28/1990) To designate certain lands in the State of Illinois as wilderness, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 101-633 or special provisions for 101-633 or legislative history for 101-633.

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.