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.

Less than 30 miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada encompassed by the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, lies a place of eye-catching beauty and historical wonder. The North McCullough Wilderness covers the northern portion of the north-south trending McCullough Mountain Range. Unlike surrounding areas, the northern portion of this range is comprised of ancient volcanic rock. The mountains in the North McCullough Wilderness, reaching approximately 5,500 feet, are massive rounded volcanic peaks, which have a steep east-facing escarpment and gradual western slope.

Though a short distance from the lights and sounds of Las Vegas, silence is common on the peaks and in most canyons. Low visitation levels in the southern portion of this wilderness provide opportunities for primitive and unconfined recreation. Diverse non-developed recreational opportunities include hiking, backpacking, rock scrambling, nature study, photography, horseback riding, hunting, and general exploration.

In the northern portion of this wilderness sits the Petroglyph Management Area. This area provides grand opportunities to experience the magnificent petroglyphs left by people of the past. This area is limited to day use only. To keep the petroglyphs pristine, please to not touch the images, as the oils on your skin will damage them. Photographs and sketches are great ways to remember your visit, but rubbings of the images are not permitted.

The North McCullough Mountains are volcanic in origin, and are comprised of andesite and basalt flows that date from 6 to 17 million years ago. Black basalt flows can be seen on the ridges, peaks, and western slopes. The eastern escarpment is comprised of reddish-brown andesite breccias. Examples of lava flows, ash falls, and glassy zones are clearly evident.

Ranging from approximately 3,000 to 5,000 feet in elevation, the landscape displays a thriving Mojave Desert filled with crososte bush, white bursage, brittle bush, burro bush, desert saltbrush, Mojave yucca, teddy-bear cholla, and hedgehog cacti. Black grama grass grows in this wilderness and is not known to occur anywhere else in Nevada. Short-lived annual and perennial wild flowers appear in March, April, and May when prompted by winter rains. A sharp-eyed visitor may glimpse desert bighorn sheep, black-tailed jackrabbits, white-tailed antelope squirrels, desert woodrats, desert tortoises, side-blotched lizards, black throated sparrows, rock wrens, red-tailed hawks, and a variety of wintering migratory birds.

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Why Visit Wilderness?

Leave No Trace

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Wilderness-Specific Regulations

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Applicable Wilderness Law(s)

Public Law 107-282

Recreational Opportunities

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