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.

Chamisso Wilderness is comprised of Chamisso and Puffin Island and is a subunit of the Chukchi Sea Unit, the northernmost the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge units. Chamisso Wilderness has one large sand spit and a low beach zone surrounding a covering of tundra with a few marshy bogs.

Although Chamisso Island is much larger (rising over 200 feet out of the sea), Puffin Island houses many more nesting birds, especially horned puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, and thick-billed murres who build their nests on the steep-walled cliffs that fall into Spafarief Bay. An unusual sight is horned puffins digging burrows in which to lay their eggs, much like tufted puffins do.

Alaska Natives still cross from the mainland to gather eggs, primarily from kittiwakes and murres. No other animals live on the islands except for birds and the occasional fox that wanders over on the frozen sea in winter. Walruses, seals, and whales often may be seen in Spafarief Bay.

Boating is dangerous due to frequent storms that blow in during cool summers and frigid winters.

Summer temperatures average in the low 50s and 60s (Fahrenheit) and in the low 20s and 30s in winter.

Daylight never leaves in mid-June and appears briefly as twilight in mid-December.

Chamisso Wilderness receives 73.5 inches of precipitation each year.

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 Chamisso 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 Chamisso Wilderness
Google Earth

Alaska 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 93-632

Date: January 3, 1975
Acreage: 455 acres

(No official title, designates Fish and Wildlife Service wildernesses) - Public law 93-632 (1/3/1975) Designation of wilderness areas within the National Widlife Refuge System

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 93-632 or legislative history for 93-632.

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.