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 Seney Wilderness is part of the 95,238 acre Seney National Wildlife Refuge. At first glance the entire Refuge appears wild, but in fact much of it is carefully managed to provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife. However, if you keep looking you will notice the western one-third of the Refuge contains no roads or man-made structures. This is the Wilderness area, the second largest in the state of Michigan.

Here you may see a bald eagle perched in a giant pine tree, or glimpse the reclusive gray wolf. The area is also home to moose, black bear, coyote, bobcat, white-tailed deer, fox, mink, marten, fisher, otter, beaver and muskrats. Birds include the yellow rail, sandhill crane, spruce grouse and a variety of songbirds

Once the land of Seney lay beneath an ancient lake. When the lake disappeared, winds swirled sand from its bottom into dunes. Eventually these became covered with trees and brush to form a string of islands in the midst of a vast bogland. Today, most of the Seney Wilderness is "string bog," puncuated with pine islands. The bogs support unusual vegetation such as the carnivorous pitcher plant. On the islands you will find large red and white pines that have survived countless fires and the logger's axe.

Leave No Trace

Seney Wilderness is open during daylight hours only. No camping is allowed and no established trails exist. Campfires are also prohibited. Horses are not allowed on any portion of Seney National Wildlife Refuge.

Location

The Wilderness area is located 10 miles west of the town of Seney. Access is best from highway 28 or the Creighton Truck Trail. The Refuge headquarters and visitor's center are located 5 miles south of Seney on highway 77. The office is open Monday through Friday, 7:30am - 4:00pm all year and the visitor center is open 9am to 5pm every day from May 15th - October 15th

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 Seney Wilderness
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 91-504

Date: October 23, 1970
Acreage: 25,150 acres

(No official title, designates Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses) - Public Law 91-504 (10/23/1970) To designate certain lands as wilderness within National Wildlife Refuges

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 91-504 or legislative history for 91-504.

Recreational Opportunities

The Wilderness is a great place to explore the wonders of a string bog ecosystem, if you like to follow your own path. In the winter hike the Wilderness wearing snowshoes, for a different perspective.

Bird watching, photography and nature study opportunities abound. Mushroom gathering and berry picking are allowed.

Hunting is permitted for Ruffed-Grouse, American Woodcock, snowshoe hare, white-tailed deer and black bear. Contact the Refuge headquarters for specific regulations.

Climate and Special Equipment Needs

Much of the Wilderness is wetlands. While hiking you will encounter bogs, streams and beaver dams. Fast drying clothing and appropriate foot wear are recommended. Since there are no trails a compass and/or GPS is a must.

Safety and Current Conditions

Biting insects are the gatekeepers of the Seney Wilderness, so come prepared or plan your trip around their life cycles. Spring is when biting insects are most abundant. Their numbers wane in the hot summer months, but can still be bothersome at dawn and dusk or after rains. Breezy days will offer some relief. In the fall, after the first frost, biting insect populations drop dramatically.

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.