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.

If this Wilderness were a dartboard, players would aim for a 4,329-foot bull's-eye known as Pond Mountain, the highest point in the area.

Rugged and steep, the terrain has numerous inclines that exceed 60 degrees and support seven major streams. Elevation bottoms out at unusual Buckled Rock (1,900 feet), a 150-foot vertical cliff named for the pattern of bends in the strata near Hampton, Tennessee.

Upland hardwoods dominate the tree cover, along with a few cove hardwoods and yellow pines. In the center of the Wilderness you'll find the upright cliffs and rocky outcroppings of the Watauga Scenic Area. This is a rare discovery indeed, with small stands of virgin timber, scarce in Tennessee, including scarlet oak dating from the late 1800s.

Several cascading waterfalls spill down the Laurel Fork Gorge in the southwestern corner of the area, where cliffs stand 100 to 200 feet above trout-teeming Laurel Fork Creek.

Hunters are attracted in season to deer, grouse, and wild turkeys.

Big Laurel Branch Wilderness lies just north of Watauga Lake.

The Appalachian Trail (AT) crosses the area for about 6.6 miles, including a trek through the Laurel Fork Gorge, where a shelter stands. Several other trails provide access to the area. The Watauga Scenic Trail travels about 2.2 miles up Dry Branch into the heart of the scenic area. And the Pond Mountain Trail crawls up some steep and rocky terrain for about 4.5 miles along the top of Pond Mountain in a generally north-south direction.

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 Pond Mountain 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 Pond Mountain Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Tennessee 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 99-490

Date: October 16, 1986
Acreage: 6,665 acres

Tennessee Wilderness Act of 1986 - Public law 99-490 (10/16/1986) To designate certain lands in the Cherokee National Forest in the State of Tennessee as wilderness areas, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 99-490 or legislative history for 99-490.

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.