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.

In the middle of the Boston Mountains, Hurricane Creek tumbles along its boulder-strewn way, sparkling in pool after pool, through the center of this Wilderness. Limestone and sandstone bluffs, some over 100 feet high, loom above the rippling water.

Second- and third-growth upland hardwoods, primarily oak and hickory, forest the surrounding lands, growing among narrow, V-shaped valleys. Dogwood, redbud, serviceberry, and witch hazel form the understory.

Side drainages into the creek offer rugged traveling. Elevations surpass 2,200 feet on the high ridges.

At the turn of the century, as many as 70 families inhabited Hurricane Creek Valley. While they're long gone, their homes, farms, cemeteries, and roads live on, although nature is gradually reclaiming ground.

The Ozark Highlands Trail (OHT), partly an old pioneer road, crosses the Wilderness in a 19.5-mile, southwest-northeast path, bookended by parking lots.

The Ozark Highlands Trail Guide rates this section as "one of the most scenic spots in Arkansas." Among the scenery is a huge natural rock bridge that spans Hurricane Creek. A high-water bypass on the OHT allows year-round access but eliminates some of the best scenery.

All during the year you'll have to wade across the shallow but slick-bottomed creek, black bears have been known to raid camps, and some of the land within the boundaries is private . . . none of which should deter you from this pristine slice of Arkansas Wilderness.

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 Hurricane 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 Hurricane Creek Wilderness
FS Topographic Map
Google Earth

Arkansas 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 98-508

Date: October 19, 1984
Acreage: 15,177 acres

Arkansas Wilderness Act of 1984 (Dale Bumpers Wilderness Resources Protection Act) - Public law 98-508 (10/19/1984) To designate certain national forest system lands in the State of Arkansas for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, and for other purposes

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 98-508 or special provisions for 98-508 or legislative history for 98-508.

Public Law 105-245

Date: October 7, 1998
Acreage: 0 acres

Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 1999 - Public Law 105-245 (10/7/1998) Dale Bumpers Wilderness Resources Protection Act of 1998

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 105-245 or special provisions for 105-245 or legislative history for 105-245.

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.