Visit Wilderness
Search for a wilderness as the destination for your next outdoor adventure.

Why Visit Wilderness?
Learn more about the diverse ways in which we benefit from wilderness and threats wilderness areas face today.
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Search for a wilderness as the destination for your next outdoor adventure.

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.
Winding on a serpentine course through the rim of the Colorado Plateau, Wet Beaver Creek twists through a steep-walled canyon of Supai sandstone and shale.
Beyond lovely red cliffs in the lower section, the canyon widens and opens onto the Verde River. It originates about 12 miles east of the Beaver Creek Ranger Station at an elevation of about 6,200 feet and enters the Verde near 3,000 feet.
Here, you'll find pristine riparian habitat dominated by cottonwoods, sycamores, and alders.
Wet Beaver Creek is one of Arizona's finest and rarest natural resources: a perennially flowing desert stream. The year-round waters attract large numbers of wildlife: elk and deer, bears and lions, smaller mammals, reptiles, and birds.
Two major trails, Apache Maid (9.5 miles) and the more popular Bell (10.8 miles), offer easy access to the rim country. Down in the canyon the hiking is fairly easy.
Many visitors come to picnic, hike, or fish for trout and bass.
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 Wet Beaver Wilderness.
For more information on Leave No Trace, Visit the Leave No Trace, Inc. website.
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.
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.
Date: August 28, 1984
Acreage: 6,700 acres
Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public Law 98-406 (8/28/1984) Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984
For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-406 or special provisions for 98-406 or legislative history for 98-406 for this law.
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.