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 South Pahroc Range is extremely rugged with deeply cut canyons, high ridges, large rounded boulders and heavily forested expanses ranging from 5,000 to 7,950 feet. Much of the range is a solitary volcanic massif composed of varying colored layers of welded tuff that have weathered into unusual pockets, columns and stone faces. The lower elevations are gently rolling bajada with the tuff boulders more scattered. The mountain range creates an 'island in the sky" effect. Moderately deep, steep-walled drainages cut across the mountain from east to west. Differential weathering of welded tuff layers has created numerous pockets, holes, columns and the ubiquitous, large rounded boulders. The rocky geologic features are interlaced with stands of pinyon-juniper, white fir and aspen, forming isolated glades that provide shady solitude. Mule deer, mountain lion, newly reintroduced bighorn sheep, golden eagles and prairie falcons can be found 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 South Pahroc Range 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

The South Pahroc Range Wilderness is located in central Lincoln County approximately 30 miles west of Caliente, Nevada.

Access to this Wilderness area from Caliente, Nevada is achieved via federal highway 93 28 miles west to an unnamed county road which takes you to the eastern border of the South Pahroc Range Wilderness.

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 South Pahroc Range Wilderness
Google Earth

Nevada 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 108-424

Date: November 30, 2004
Acreage: 25,800 acres

Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation, and Development Act of 2004 - Public law 108-424 (11/30/2004) To establish wilderness areas, promote conservation, improve public land, and provide for the high quality development in Lincoln County, Nevada, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 108-424 or special provisions for 108-424 or legislative history for 108-424.

Recreational Opportunities

Hiking, backpacking, and camping is good here. Climbers and rock scramblers will find challenging routes that culminate in scenic overlooks atop gargantuan geologic features. Vantage points for hikers provide a view of huge empty desert valleys, interrupted by intervening chains of more distant mountains. Rock hounds may find opalescent feldspar crystals, obsidian, and "Apache tears".

Safety and Current Conditions

Contact Bureau of Land Management Caliente Field Office for current weather, road conditions, and hazards.

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.