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.
Extreme isolation defines Quinn Canyon, a remote central Nevada wilderness.
From the main ridgeline of the area, cresting at more than 10,000 feet, many smaller ridges and narrow canyons extend out east and west.
In the V-shaped drainages, snowmelt along with summer rains collect in four year-round streams. Several springs usually provide water.
From pinion pine and juniper, the vegetation gives way to sagebrush with scattered white fir, aspen, and mahogany higher up. Small stands of bristlecone pine can be found here, too.
Mule deer move into the higher elevations in summer.
About 20.8 miles of trails in poor to very poor condition access the area and receive light or no use. Rough hiking on the Little Cherry Trail, the only path in fair condition, will lead you to the 10-mile Hooper Canyon Trail, which offers a semi-loop through the Wilderness that must be connected by shuttle.
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 Quinn Canyon Wilderness.
For more information on Leave No Trace, Visit the Leave No Trace, Inc. website.
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: December 5, 1989
Acreage: 27,000 acres
Nevada Wilderness Protection Act - Public law 101-195 (12/5/1989) To designate certain lands in the State of Nevada as wilderness, and for other purposes
For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 101-195 or special provisions for 101-195 or legislative history for 101-195 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.