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.

Despite the fact that the Wilderness is only one-half mile to two miles wide, the canyon offers wonderful opportunities for solitude.

As for beauty, serenity, and complexity, the hiking is rarely exceeded in Arizona.

Wild, primitive, and trailless, the canyon bottom is narrow and filled with water in places, requiring you to swim or wade if you hike the entire length . . . a challenge to be avoided during storms.

A fairly easy trail starts at Bull Pen Ranch, follows the creek six miles, and climbs up the northern slope to the rim. This route is especially popular with anglers, who fish Clear Creek for German brown and rainbow trout. Two more trails, Maxwell (about six-tenths of a mile long) and Tramway (about three-fourths of a mile), also lead to the canyon bottom.

The U.S. Forest Service calls West Clear Creek Wilderness "one of the most rugged, remote canyons in northern Arizona." Clear Creek Canyon, opening on the Verde River on the west, is the longest canyon cutting through the Mogollon Rim along the edge of the Colorado Plateau. The canyon's very steep walls reach as high as 1,000 feet. It extends about 20 miles eastward before splitting into Clover Creek and Willow Valley, which form the headwaters of West Clear Creek.

Pine and fir grow higher up, pinion and juniper on the slopes, and along the creek is a riparian habitat dominated by sycamore, alder, and cottonwood.

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 West Clear Creek 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 West Clear Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Arizona 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 98-406

Date: August 28, 1984
Acreage: 13,600 acres

Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984 - Public Law 98-406 (8/28/1984) Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-406 or special provisions for 98-406 or legislative history for 98-406.

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.