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.

Five glaciers mantle the slopes of stately Mount Jefferson, the dominant feature in this region of the High Cascades: Whitewater, Waldo, Milk Creek, Russell, and Jefferson Park. At 10,497 feet, Mount Jefferson challenges hikers with the steepest, most difficult climb of Oregon's high summits. The southern portion of the area rests beneath 7,841-foot Three Fingered Jack. Most of the high country of this Wilderness is wide open, almost like a park, with scattered tree cover, long talus slopes, rocky outcroppings, alpine meadows, and year-round patches of snow. Between 5,000 feet and 6,000 feet you'll find more than 150 small lakes, about half of them stocked with trout. A grand forest of Douglas fir, silver fir, subalpine fir, mountain hemlock, lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, and cedar mix with vine maple, huckleberry, and rhododendron to distinguish the lower elevations. The vast Warm Springs Indian Reservation shares a long northeastern border. Hikers can wend their way through approximately 190 miles of very heavily used trails, including about 40 miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. Jefferson Park, Marion Lake, Pamelia Lake, and Jack Lake are the most impacted by human traffic.

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 Mount Jefferson 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 Mount Jefferson Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Oregon 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 90-548

Date: October 2, 1968
Acreage: 100,000 acres

(No official title, designates Mount Jefferson Wilderness) - Public law 90-548 (10/2/1968) To designate the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, Willamette, Deschutes, and Mount Hood National Forests, in the State of Oregon

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 90-548 or legislative history for 90-548.

Public Law 98-328

Date: June 26, 1984
Acreage: 6,800 acres

Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-328 (6/26/1984) To designate certain national forest system lands in the State of Oregon for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-328 or special provisions for 98-328 or legislative history for 98-328.

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.