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.

A string of of over 5,600 named, unnamed, surveyed, and unsurveyed rocks, reefs, islets, and islands lying within three miles offshore and mirror almost the entire length of the Oregon coast from Tillamook Head to the California border. These precious chunks of offshore lands above the line of mean high tide, protected as the Oregon Islands Wilderness and as part of the Oregon Islands NWR, provide a nesting habitat for an estimated 1.2 million seabirds, more than habitat along the coastlines of California and Washington combined. Beginning in April, black-and-white common murres throng the islands. Summer also brings tufted puffins, rhinoceros and Cassin's auklets, pigeon guillemots, Leach's storm-petrels, black oystercatchers, western gulls, and other species, which nest on the islands and feed in the Pacific Ocean. These rocky islands and reefs also serve as haul-outs for seals and sea lions including harbor seals, northern elephant seals, California sea lions, and the Steller sea lion, which haul themselves up on to rocks to give birth, to rest, and to molt. The Rogue and Orford Reef units of this Wilderness constitute the largest breeding and pupping sites for Steller sea lions in U.S. waters south of Alaska.

All of the island acreage has been designated Wilderness, with the exception of 1-acre Tillamook Rock and Lighthouse, and all areas are closed to public entry at all times. Waters within 500 feet of the refuge islands are closed to all watercraft from May 1 through September 15.

Closed Wilderness Area

Only a few wilderness areas are closed to access and use by the general public. Most of these closed areas are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service.The core mission of the Service's National Wildlife Refuge System is conservation of native fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. The Oregon Islands Wilderness, part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, is closed to visitation to protect wildlife and other natural, cultural, and/or other resources consistent with the conservation purpose(s) of the refuge. Wilderness designation provides an additional level of protection for the wilderness portion of this refuge, but does not open the area to public access or use.

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 Oregon Islands Wilderness
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 91-504

Date: October 23, 1970
Acreage: 21 acres

(No official title, designates Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses) - Public Law 91-504 (10/23/1970) To designate certain lands as wilderness within National Wildlife Refuges

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 91-504 or legislative history for 91-504.

Public Law 95-450

Date: October 11, 1978
Acreage: 459 acres

(No official title, designates Indian Peaks Wilderness) - Public law 95-450 (10/11/1978) To create the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area and the Arapaho National Recreation Area, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to study the feasibility of revising the boundaries of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and to add certain lands to the Oregon Islands Wilderness

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 95-450 or special provisions for 95-450 or legislative history for 95-450.

Public Law 104-333

Date: November 12, 1996
Acreage: 95 acres

Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996 - Public Law 104-333 (11/12/1996) Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 104-333 or special provisions for 104-333 or legislative history for 104-333.

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.