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.

North Carolina's Croatan National Forest is a unique coastal ecosystem set between the Atlantic Ocean and the Neuse River and interlaced with the sea's nurseries, called estuaries, where oysters, shrimp, and crab reproduce and grow to maturity.

Croatan's Catfish Lake South Wilderness is primarily raised bogland, where biting insects try to steal the spotlight from the American alligator and the cottonmouth, canebrake rattler, eastern diamondback rattler, pygmy rattler, copperhead, and other poisonous snakes.

Five genera of insectivorous plants live here, a combination rarely seen elsewhere: the erect pitcher plant; the hairy, sticky round-leafed sundew; the waxy, "buttery" butterwort; the hinged-leafed Venus flytrap; and the aquatic, floating bladderwort.

You may see deer, bears, squirrels, rabbits, and raccoons, all of which may be hunted according to state law. Sleek muskrats, minks, and otters are common.

On the Atlantic Flyway, Catfish Lake attracts ducks and geese. Bird lovers have also spotted egrets, flycatchers, woodpeckers, hawks, woodcocks, owls, and ospreys.

The Wilderness, which is bordered by roads and on the northeast by Catfish Lake, offers nothing in the way of trails–just lots of chances to find yourself the victim of some hungry pest.

The lake draws a few anglers who hope to hook bass, redbreast, bluegill, chain pickerel, warmouth, yellow perch, and, of course, catfish. If you brought your pole, prepare to be disappointed due to the lake's high acidity.

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 Catfish Lake South 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

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 Catfish Lake South Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

North Carolina 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 98-324

Date: June 19, 1984
Acreage: 7,600 acres

North Carolina Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public law 98-324 (6/19/1984) To designate certain public lands in North Carolina as additions to the National Wilderness Preservation System

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-324 or legislative history for 98-324.

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.