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.

Medicine Lake Wilderness lies within the glacial drift prairie of northeastern Montana.

The gentle rolling hills and numerous shallow wetland depressions were created by repeated advances and retreats of glaciers. More than 12,000 years ago, a one to three mile-wide valley bordered by pre- and postglacial terraces was formed by a glacial front along the ancient route of the Missouri River. Sitting at about 2,000 feet in elevation, Medicine Lake is a large, shallow lake which filled this ancient valley.

The Medicine Lake Wilderness includes the main water body of the lake, the islands within the lake, and a portion of land southeast of the lake.

Receiving 12.83 inches of precipitation, annually in the Wilderness, average temperatures range from 55 to 84 degrees F in July but can rise above 100 degrees in the summer. Summer nights almost invariably are cool and pleasant. In January, average temperatures range from -2 to 23 degrees.

The Medicine Lake Wilderness conserves diverse wetlands and grasslands to provide breeding grounds for migratory birds and other wildlife. Over 126 species of birds are documented to breed in the area, including an abundance of waterfowl, grassland birds and colonial nesting birds.

The most common grasses are needle and thread grass, blue grama, western wheatgrass, prairie junegrass, and prairie sandreed. Four state-listed noxious weeds are found on the Wilderness: leafy spurge, Canada thistle, spotted knapweed, and dalmation toadflax. These noxious weeds are being intensively managed.

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 Medicine Lake 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

Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located approximately two miles south of the town of Medicine Lake, MT on Montana State Highway 16. The wilderness portion of the Lake is on the east side of Highway 16. The Sandhills Wilderness Area is located southeast of the main lake along Lakeside Road.

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 Medicine Lake Wilderness
Google Earth

Montana 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 94-557

Date: October 19, 1976
Acreage: 11,366 acres

(No official title, designates Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses) - Public law 94-557 (10/19/1976) To designate certain lands as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System and to provide designation for certain lands as Wilderness Study Areas

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 94-557 or legislative history for 94-557.

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.