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.

As its name suggests, Never Summer Wilderness is frequently battered by heavy rain and snow, which accumulates on its storm-swept peaks. The relatively gentle terrain includes mountains with cloud-inspired names like Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, and Nimbus. Seventeen summits rise above 12,000 feet, with Howard Mountain, the highest, reaching 12,810 feet. This Wilderness supplies water to three major rivers: the Colorado, the North Platte, and the Cache la Poudre. In damp gulches above 10,000 feet, trees thrive in the abundant moisture, growing to impressive sizes. In Bowen Gulch, spruce and fir trees have been measured at four feet in diameter and are estimated to be 600 years old. The Bowen Gulch Trail takes hikers about five miles into this old-growth forest. In the northern section, ponds and bogs provide rare habitats for species typically found much farther north, including wood frogs, bog bean, and pygmy shrews—and perhaps even a wolverine. Moose have been successfully reintroduced, and several lakes and streams offer habitat for trout. Straddling the Continental Divide, Never Summer features about 20 miles of trails that climb gulches and cross the divide via two high passes.

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 Never Summer 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 Never Summer Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Colorado 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 96-560

Date: December 22, 1980
Acreage: 14,100 acres

Colorado Wilderness Act - Public Law 96-560 (12/22/1980) To designate certain National Forest System lands in the States of Colorado, South Dakota, Missouri, South Carolina, and Louisiana for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 96-560 or special provisions for 96-560 or legislative history for 96-560.

Public Law 103-77

Date: August 13, 1993
Acreage: 6,900 acres

Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 - Public Law 103-77 (8/13/1993) Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 103-77 or special provisions for 103-77 or legislative history for 103-77.

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.