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 11-mile long Goshute Canyon Wilderness is a rugged, uplifted range, with massive white limestone cliffs jutting from its slopes. The lower elevations are thickly forested by pinyon pine and juniper, while scattered bristlecone and limber pine occur at the higher elevations. Aspens and cottonwoods in moist drainages provide a cool retreat. The large, high elevation Goshute Basin, rimmed by peaks, contains expanses of aspen and white fir and are filled with wild flowers in the spring and summer. Elevations within the Wilderness boundaries range from 6,000 to 10,410 feet.

Snowmelt and numerous springs provide riparian settings and water sources for a great number of wildlife species including Bonneville cutthroat trout in Goshute Creek, mule deer, mountain lions, bobcats, and various birds of prey.

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 Goshute Canyon 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 Goshute Canyon Wilderness is located in the Cherry Creek Mountains in east-central Nevada within White Pine County. It is approximately 50 miles north of Ely, Nevada. A small portion of the Goshute Canyon Wilderness Study Area lies adjacent to the north, in Elko County. Access to the Goshute Canyon Wilderness from Ely is via Federal Highway 93 northbound approximately 50 miles; turn west onto State Route 489 towards the town of Cherry Creek. Turn north onto County road 25, this dirt road runs east of the eastern boundary of Goshute Canyon.

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 Goshute Canyon 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 109-432

Date: December 20, 2006
Acreage: 42,544 acres

Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 - Public law 109-432 (12/20/2006) To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend expiring provisions, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 109-432 or special provisions for 109-432 or legislative history for 109-432.

General Trip Planning Information

There are outstanding opportunities for primitive forms of recreation in the Goshute Canyon Wilderness. Goshute Cave is an extensive limestone solution cave that offers excellent opportunities for caving and geological study. The cave is rich in formations and relatively well preserved with nearly 100 years of visitation.

Solitude is easy to find in this wilderness, in large part due to its remoteness and steep terrain, it does not receive much visitation. Additionally, you may find solitude in one of the drainages, just over another rock ledge or tucked into one of the forested slopes.

Other recreational activities include camping, hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, and hunting. See area management for regulations.

A long "cherrystem" route extends from the southwest corner of the wilderness far into Goshute Basin, providing motorized access to several primitive campsites.

Safety and Current Conditions

Contact the Ely District Office for current 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.