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.

From west to east, remote waterways Rock River and Silver Creek flow through 150-foot-deep canyons. The two canyons are separated by a broad, flat ridge and surrounded by relatively flat uplands.

Second-growth northern hardwoods can be seen, alongside stumps from logging operations that denuded the area by the end of the 1930s.

In spring, Rock River leaps about 15 feet over Rock River Falls into a pool, pouring into Ginpole Lake, a secluded 13-acre body of water bordered by canyon walls. The waters offer anglers the chance to fish for rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, coho salmon, and northern pike.

Beyond the lake, Rock River joins Silver Creek and together they flow out of the Wilderness and continue the journey toward Lake Superior.

Wildlife is typical of a northern hardwood forest, and may include deer, bear, beaver, mink, muskrat, raccoon, squirrel, hare, woodpecker, and grouse, as well as several songbirds.

Access is generally easy by foot via unmarked trails covering old logging roads, skid trails, and abandoned railroad grades which crisscross the area's upland.

Within the two canyons are steep walls, densely vegetated with brush and undergrowth, wet on the bottom; the fragile sandstone walls support a diversity of unique plants, and climbing is discouraged.

Along the edge of the canyons, sandstone undercuts form caves up to 40 feet deep. In winter, incredible ice curtains can form when water seeps over the edge and freezes.

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 Rock River Canyon 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 Rock River Canyon Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Michigan 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 100-184

Date: December 8, 1987
Acreage: 4,640 acres

Michigan Wilderness Act of 1987 - Public law 100-184 (12/8/1987) To designate certain lands in the State of Michigan as wilderness, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 100-184 or special provisions for 100-184 or legislative history for 100-184.

Want to Volunteer for Wilderness?

People who volunteer their time to steward our wilderness areas are an essential part of wilderness management.

The Hiawatha is seeking volunteer assistance for ongoing maintenance and monitoring projects. Please contact your local ranger district to request more information on volunteering.

Contact the following groups to inquire about volunteer opportunities. Groups are listed alphabetically by the state(s) in which the wilderness is located.