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.

At 4.2 million acres, Togiak National Wildlife Refuge covers about the same amount of land as Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, a region important to Eskimo and Native American hunter-gatherers for more than 5,000 years.

Over half of the refuge, the northern section, has been designated Wilderness. To the north of Togiak Wilderness stretches the vast Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

Three major river systems, comprising over 1,500 miles of water, lie within the Togiak Wilderness (Togiak, Kanektok, and Goodnews). More than one million salmon return to these waters each year to spawn. Fishing draws many visitors to the Togiak Region, both humans and brown bears. Floaters often run the rivers, fishing along the way for salmon, trout, char, grayling, and pike.

The Togiak River flows wide and easily. The Kanektok and Goodnews are faster, more twisted rivers with a greater variety of fish. None of the rivers contain whitewater.

The Ahklun Mountains encompass about 80 percent of aree and give way to tundra and coastal plains at lower elevations. The mountains in the Wilderness hide many large lakes.

Sea cliffs provide nesting places for approximately one million marine birds, including murres, puffins, auklets, kittiwakes, and cormorants. Beaches provide haul-outs for walrus, sea lions, and harbor seals. Seven species of whales have been identified cruising the coastline during migratory seasons.

You'll find no trails, just millions of mosquitoes in summer, severe winters, few trees, and fewer fellow humans.

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 Togiak 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 Togiak 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 96-487

Date: December 2, 1980
Acreage: 2,270,000 acres

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act - Public Law 96-487 (12/2/1980) Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

For more information (To download or see all affected wilderness areas) visit our law library for 96-487 or special provisions for 96-487 or legislative history for 96-487.

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.