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.

Shallow caves, many of which show evidence of prehistoric habitation, are common in this Wilderness and it is suspected that many more have yet to be discovered. If you set out to explore this territory, you will be in the northern Snake Range of eastern Nevada, bounded on the east by Snake Valley and on the west by Spring Valley. Stretching north and west of 12,050-foot Mount Moriah is a plateau known as The Table, a unique world of subalpine vegetation lined with bristlecone and limber pine. Mount Moriah rises as high as 6,000 feet above the surrounding Wilderness. Dry pinion-juniper forestland dominates a large part of the lower elevations here.

About 30 miles of generally primitive trails provide access to the area from several primitive trailheads.
Four year-round creeks provide watery homes for Bonneville cutthroat trout, but the heart of the area tends to be dry, requiring you to carry all your water. Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep scramble around Mount Moriah, but visitors are few (most come to hunt mule deer or grouse). The rugged topography is at least partially to blame.

About 50 miles of fair to very poor trails give access to the area. Some trailheads on the east side are generally accessible by passenger car along roads that follow Hampton Creek, Hendry's Creek, and Smith Creek. Some of Mount Moriah Wilderness lies on BLM land and is managed by the Ely Field Office. Great Basin National Park lies just to the south.

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 Mt. Moriah 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

The Mt. Moriah Wilderness is managed by both the BLM and the Forest Service. The Forest Service portion is to the south of the BLM portion. It is located in the Snake Creek Range in eastern Nevada within White Pine County, approximately 30 miles
northeast of Ely, Nevada.
Access to the Mt. Moriah Wilderness from Ely is via Federal Highway 50 east bound, approximately 50 miles. Cross over the border into Utah, and after about a mile turn north toward the small community of Gandy. Once to Gandy (about 27 miles from Highway 50), turn westbound onto BLM Road 4032. In about seven miles you will drop down into Marble Canyon Wash. At the intersection in the wash turn left; this two-track road will take you to the northeastern corner of the BLM portion of the wilderness.

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 Mt. Moriah Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Nevada 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 101-195

Date: December 5, 1989
Acreage: 82,000 acres

Nevada Wilderness Protection Act - Public law 101-195 (12/5/1989) To designate certain lands in the State of Nevada as wilderness, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 101-195 or special provisions for 101-195 or legislative history for 101-195.

Public Law 109-432

Date: December 20, 2006
Acreage: 10,905 acres

Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 - Public law 109-432 (12/20/2006) To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend expiring provisions, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 109-432 or special provisions for 109-432 or legislative history for 109-432.

Public Law 116-9

Date: March 12, 2019
Acreage: -23 acres

John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act - Public law 116-9 (3/12/2019) To provide for the management of the natural resources of the United States, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 116-9 or special provisions for 116-9 or legislative history for 116-9.

Recreational Opportunities

Recreational opportunities include camping, hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, and hunting. Solitude is attainable throughout much of the wilderness.

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.