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.

Yellowstone National Park lies along the western boundary of North Absaroka Wilderness, which also shares a border with Montana and contains one of the areas least desecrated by humanity's insatiable thirst for development, a fact evidenced throughout the Lower 48.

Several summits rise above 10,000 feet with the highest point on Dead Indian Peak at 12,216 feet. Dead Indian Peak stands about eight miles from Dead Indian Meadows and about 15 miles from other landmarks, such as Dead Indian Pass, Dead Indian Hill, Dead Indian Creek, and Dead Indian Campground. It makes you wonder if this region was hazardous to Native Americans.

This remote and rugged country contains large regions of virtually inaccessible terrain. Volcanic in origin, the land is dissected by numerous creeks forming huge drainages (containing tons of erodible topsoil) that turn into frenzied rivers of mud during summer rainstorms.

The Wilderness receives few visitors, especially before hunting season opens.

There are 217 miles of rough and minimally marked trails, and hikers run a high risk of getting lost or hurt. The trails are generally long, steep, and narrow. They tend to follow drainages and have few places to cross from one drainage to another except at the headwaters, though some of the trails will take you far from water. From easily accessible Pahaska Campground, a trail runs north along Crow Creek to meet other trails.

Only a few lakes exist, but the streams contain cutthroat, brown, brook, and rainbow trout.

The region is home to grizzly bears, so precautions are in order. Big-game hunters come by the hundreds for bighorn sheep, elk, and moose. Marmots and pikas reign on numerous talus slopes.

Summers are relatively dry, and flies and gnats may disturb your serenity. Mosquitoes are generally few, I'm happy to report, and far between.

A limited number of appealing campsites has created some overuse at the desirable places.

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 North Absaroka 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 North Absaroka Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Wyoming 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 88-577

Date: September 3, 1964
Acreage: 359,700 acres

The Wilderness Act - Public law 88-577 (9/3/1964) To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 88-577 or special provisions for 88-577 or legislative history for 88-577.

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.