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.

The Petersburg Creek-Duncan Salt Chuck Wilderness is made up of two watersheds divided by the alpine covered peaks of Portage Mountain.

On the east side of the Wilderness, Petersburg Creek spills down a U-shaped glacier-cut valley with mountain peaks overlooking the valley. The mountains reach their highest point at 3,577 feet and slope down to the sea-level grass flats of the Petersburg Creek estuary, a popular place for sheltered sea kayak day trips beginning in Petersburg.
The creek is known for its salmon and trout, as well as for the uplands wildlife of black bears, wolves, black-tail deer and moose.
A 6.5 mile rugged trail connects Petersburg Lake with a saltwater trailhead four miles west of Petersburg.

The Duncan Salt Chuck, a tidally influenced salt marsh, has rocky rapids constricting its opening on the sea, making slack high-tide periods the safest time to enter by small boat.
The salt chuck estuary provides excellent habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds.
This western side of the Wilderness is more difficult for people to reach and can provide a quiet, tranquil place to escape.

Typical of southeastern Alaska, spruce and hemlock fill most of the forest, with muskegs in the areas with gentle slopes and poorer drainage.

Rain is frequent in summer and wind and snow in winter, with snow accumulations reaching 200 inches on the area's mountaintops.

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 Petersburg Creek-Duncan Salt Chuck 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 Petersburg Creek-Duncan Salt Chuck Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Alaska 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 96-487

Date: December 2, 1980
Acreage: 50,000 acres

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act - Public Law 96-487 (12/2/1980) Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 96-487 or special provisions for 96-487 or legislative history for 96-487.

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.