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.

Located in northwestern Montana on both sides of the Continental Divide, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex includes the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and Great Bear Wilderness areas. Together, they span more than 1.5 million acres—making this one of the largest wilderness landscapes in the lower 48 states.

Visitors to this vast and rugged terrain can explore over 1,700 miles of trail that wind through alpine meadows, forested valleys, windswept ridges, and dramatic rock formations. One of the most iconic features is the Chinese Wall, a 22-mile-long limestone escarpment rising 1,000 feet along the Continental Divide. The Wild and Scenic South Fork of the Flathead River flows through the complex, offering opportunities for fishing, floating, and quiet reflection. Big Salmon Lake, the largest in the area, is a remote and rewarding destination deep in the backcountry.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex is home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including grizzly bears, black bears, gray wolves, lynx, wolverines, moose, elk, deer, mountain lions, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep. These species roam across ecosystems that range from lowland grasslands to subalpine forests.

Named for wilderness advocate Bob Marshall, the Bob Marshall Wilderness was designated in 1964 and is the oldest and largest of the three areas. Together, these connected landscapes offer a powerful experience of wild nature, solitude, and sweeping mountain beauty.

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 Bob Marshall 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 Bob Marshall Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Montana Wildernesses

Printed Maps

Fetching MyTopo from Database
Cairn Cartographics Map

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 88-577

Date: September 3, 1964
Acreage: 950,000 acres

The Wilderness Act - Public law 88-577 (9/3/1964) To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 88-577 or special provisions for 88-577 or legislative history for 88-577.

Public Law 95-546

Date: October 28, 1978
Acreage: 60,000 acres

(No official title, designates Great Bear Wilderness) - Public law 95-546 (10/28/1978) To designate the Great Bear Wilderness, Flathead National Forest, and enlarge the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Flathead and Lewis and Clark National Forests, State of Montana

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 95-546 or legislative history for 95-546.

Public Law 113-291

Date: December 19, 2014
Acreage: 50,401 acres

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 - Public law 113-291 (12/19/2014) To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2015 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 113-291 or special provisions for 113-291 or legislative history for 113-291.

Public Law 115-31

Date: May 5, 2017
Acreage: -603 acres

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 - Public law 115-31 (5/5/2017) Making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 115-31 or legislative history for 115-31.

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.