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 Black Creek Wilderness, located in the Gulf Coastal Plains of southern Mississippi, is the state’s largest wilderness area, spanning much of the broad valley of Black Creek. The creek flows through the valley with waters stained a deep caramel by tannic acid from decaying vegetation. Designated as Mississippi’s only Wild and Scenic River for 21 miles, Black Creek is celebrated for its scenic beauty. It bisects the wilderness, winding through a hardwood floodplain filled with oxbow lakes and dense stands of sweet gum, sweet bay, red maple, oak, pine, and bald cypress.

The creek’s banks, which range from 5 to 20 feet high, feature numerous white sandbars perfect for camping or picnicking. Canoeing along the gently meandering creek is a popular way to explore, though during low water levels, watch out for logs. The Black Creek National Recreation Trail, accessible only to foot traffic, follows the creek’s drainage for about 41 miles, with around 10 miles passing through the wilderness. This trail traverses the Lower Coastal Plain, where piney woods grow over rolling hills and moderate ridges. Although the terrain is mostly flat, elevations rise from around 100 feet at Black Creek to a modest 270 feet in the nearby uplands.

Anglers are drawn here for bass and panfish, while hunters, particularly those seeking deer, frequent the area in season.

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 Creek 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 Black Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Mississippi 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 98-515

Date: October 19, 1984
Acreage: 4,560 acres

Mississippi National Forest Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-515 (10/19/1984) To designate certain National Forest System lands in the State of Mississippi as wilderness, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-515 or legislative history for 98-515.

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.