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.

Two billion years ago, Precambrian gneiss (a coarse-grained, granite-like metamorphic rock that's extremely strong and resistant to erosion) formed the core of this region. In what is now known as the 53-mile-long Black Canyon, the gneiss was worn away with unimaginable slowness by the Gunnison River, creating the deepest narrow canyon in America, a moody terrain where lack of sunlight shrouds the bottom in almost perpetual shadow. The most scenic 14 miles of the canyon, which has been designated Wilderness from rim to rim, is included in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. At places, the river throbs wildly 2,400 feet below, while at The Narrows, the canyon is only 1,100 feet wide at the rim and as little as 40 feet wide at the bottom. It lies surrounded by a dryland forest of piñon and juniper.

Only the most determined anglers brave the descent to catch Colorado's largest trout, grown fat and happy because of a lack of fishing pressure and a rich food supply. Expert river runners attempt the Gunnison here, carrying over several difficult portages (most people consider the canyon water unrunnable). No well-maintained trails descend the canyon walls. Camping is allowed on the canyon bottom.

Climbers often cling to the precipices, where you'll find some of the most demanding routes in the state. These cliffs are not for beginners or the inexperienced. Rangers will give you advice on routes and their difficulty. Pre-climb and post-climb registration is required.

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 Black Canyon of the Gunnison 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

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is located approximately 210 miles southwest of Denver, Colorado.

Access to the South Rim is approximately 15 miles east of Montrose, Colorado, via U.S. Highway 50 and CO Highway 347.

Access to the North Rim is 11 miles south of Crawford, Colorado, via CO Highway 92 and North Rim Road (unpaved).

There is no bridge between the north and south rims of the canyon. Allow two to three hours to drive from one side to the other.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
By bus: To Montrose or Grand Junction, CO.
By train: To Grand Junction.
There is no public transportation within the park.

PLANE
Commercial airline service is available to Montrose, Gunnison, and Grand Junction.

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 Black Canyon of the Gunnison Wilderness
Google Earth

Colorado 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 94-567

Date: October 20, 1976
Acreage: 11,180 acres

(No official title, designates National Park Service wildernesses) - Public Law 94-567 (10/20/1976) To designate certain lands within units of the National Park System as wilderness; to revise the boundaries of certain of these units; and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 94-567 or special provisions for 94-567 or legislative history for 94-567.

Public Law 106-76

Date: October 21, 1999
Acreage: 4,419 acres

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area Act of 1999 - Public law 107-76 (10/21/1999) To redesignate the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument as a national park and establish the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 106-76 or special provisions for 106-76 or legislative history for 106-76.

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.