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 Blackjack Springs Wilderness was established by Congress in 1978 and is located in Northeast Wisconsin in the Eagle River Ranger District of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Much of the area was changed by logging and fire in the early 1900s with subsequent reforestation, road building, and timber harvest under National Forest management. Portions of abandoned logging roads and railroad grades are still visible. Amid the Wilderness, four large crystal-clear springs, for which the Wilderness is named, form the headwaters of Blackjack Creek.

Here, glaciation from the last ice age has produced a rolling and uneven terrain. In the northeastern section of the Wilderness, you will find the delightfully named Whispering Lake, surrounded by forest that provides habitat for black bears, deer, fishers, ruffed grouse, and a variety of sweet-throated songbirds. Three streams drain the area and produce occasional ponds and wetlands. Much of the use of the Wilderness revolves around camping, hiking, fishing, bird watching, and hunting. Several trails enter the area, providing four miles of maintained trail, though many additional opportunities for hiking are also provided on the abandoned road grades still evident in the area.

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 Blackjack Springs 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 Blackjack Springs Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Wisconsin 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 95-494

Date: October 21, 1978
Acreage: 5,886 acres

(No official title, designates Wisconsin wildernesses) - Public law 95-494 (10/21/1978) To designate certain lands in the State of Wisconsin as wilderness

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 95-494 or legislative history for 95-494.

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.