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.
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 Cabeza Prieta Wilderness.
For more information on Leave No Trace, Visit the Leave No Trace, Inc. website.
Encompassing nearly 93% of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness Area is located north of Sonora, Mexico and west of the small town of Ajo in southwest Arizona. The Cabeza Prieta Wilderness adjoins Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the east, Mexico to the south, and the Barry M. Goldwater Range to the north and west.
Directions
On the west side of the refuge, visitors with refuge permits may access the wilderness area from Interstate 8 by traveling south from Exit 30 (west of Wellton) or Exit 42 (east of Tacna, Arizona).
On the east side of the refuge, visitors with refuge permits can access the east side of the refuge by traveling west on Rasmussen Road in Ajo for approximately 5 miles to Charlie Bell Road. For travel along the historic Camino del Diablo, visitors may travel south from Darby Well Road (located south of Ajo) to Bates Well Road, through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument onto the refuge.
Note: While on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the refuge permit is only valid for traveling through the Monument along Bates Well Road, not for recreational activities on Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. A self-issue permit may be obtained at the Organ Pipe National Monument northern boundary for recreation on the National Park Service lands.
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: November 28, 1990
Acreage: 803,418 acres
Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990 - Public law 101-628 (11/28/1990) To provide for the designation of certain public lands as wilderness in the State of Arizona
For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 101-628 or special provisions for 101-628 or legislative history for 101-628 for this law.
Date: October 5, 1999
Acreage: 0 acres
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 - Public law 106-65 (10/5/1999) To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2000 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Depart-ment of Energy, to prescribe personnel strengths for such fiscal year for the Armed Forces, and for other purposes
For more information (To download or see all affected Wilderness areas) visit our law library for 106-65 or special provisions for 106-65 or legislative history for 106-65 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.