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 Beaver Basin Wilderness includes 13 miles of breathtaking Lake Superior shoreline, stretching from Spray Falls in the west to Sevenmile Creek in the east. The Wilderness extends about 3.5 miles inland and features three pristine lakes—Beaver Lake, Trappers Lake, and Legion Lake—along with five cold-water streams: Lowney Creek, Arsenault Creek, Sevenmile Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and Beaver Creek. These clear streams and vast wetlands create ideal habitats for native coaster brook trout and other fish species, including brook trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, northern pike, and white sucker.

The area’s old-growth cedar swamp showcases healthy regeneration, providing essential browsing for white-tailed deer. Expansive beech-maple upland hardwood forests offer habitats for a wide range of wildlife, including black bears, gray wolves, American martens, fishers, migrating songbirds, raptors like bald eagles and merlins, waterfowl, grouse, and a rich variety of wildflowers. The landscape also reveals fascinating glacial features such as post-glacial meltwater channels, escarpments, and ancient Lake Nipissing beach ridges.

The Beaver Basin Wilderness offers opportunities for solitude and wilderness recreation. It includes 8.4 miles of the North Country National Scenic Trail and 8.5 miles of connector trails, as well as backcountry campgrounds with individual and group sites.

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 Beaver Basin 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

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located on the south shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, between the communities of Munising (west) and Grand Marais (east).

Please visit the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore website for more information and area maps. Topographical maps can be purchased at the park visitor centers located in Munising and Grand Marais, MI.

Car
Michigan state highways M-28 and M-94 lead to Munising. State highway M-77 leads to Grand Marais. Alger County Road H-58 and other spur roads (some unpaved) provide access throughout the lakeshore. Many roads are closed by snow during the winter.

Plane
Grass airfields are located near Grand Marais and Munising. Regularly scheduled commercial airline service arrives at Marquette, Escanaba, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

The Disabled Traveler's Companion is a good place to look for the latest information on accessibility. While not officially affiliated with the National Park Service, they have been working with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and other National Parks and provide valuable information to the disabled traveler. Their website contains information and photographs of campgrounds and park attractions that may help in planning your trip to Pictured Rocks.

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 Beaver Basin Wilderness
Google Earth

Michigan 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 111-11

Date: March 30, 2009
Acreage: 11,740 acres

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 - Public law 111-11 (3/30/2009) An act to designate certain land as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, to authorize certain programs and activities in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes.

For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 111-11 or special provisions for 111-11 or legislative history for 111-11.

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.