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Wilderness Experienced

“Wilderness Experienced” is our shared stories and musings about recent experiences in our nation’s Wildernesses. Stories can focus on the virtues of Wilderness, including the opportunity for solitude, discovery, spiritual renewal, physical challenge, wildlife viewing, and more, or things you found troubling, that just didn’t seem right in Wilderness and represent the challenges facing the National Wilderness Preservation System.

We suggest a length up to 750 words. Include one or two images from your trip, an author photo, and a very short bio (a couple of sentences works for this purpose). Wilderness Watch will review all submissions and reserves the right to decide which submissions get posted. Please send your story to [email protected]. Please do not submit travelogues or writing aimed at directing people to specific places in Wildernesses or trailheads.

Also, we encourage readers to engage the authors and other commenters through the comment feature. Please be respectful and thoughtful in your response, and focus your comments on the issues/experiences presented. Please refrain from personal attacks and harassment, using rude or disruptive language, providing misinformation, or promoting violence or illegal activities. We reserve the right to reject comments. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

  • Brett

    Turning back is never easy, but sometimes the best decision

    By Brett Haverstick Marty met us at the Bear Creek Trailhead at 9 a.m. We left my car in the lot, and she shuttled us over to Blodgett. Tim and I unloaded our packs, and went over our itinerary one last time. We expected to be back at Bear Creek in 5-6 days and then…

  • Brett

    Solitude in the River of No Return Wilderness…until all the motorboats

    By Brett Haverstick I arrived at the Corn Creek trailhead about 4 p.m. in the afternoon. The sun was still hot, and the river canyon felt like an oven, particularly for May. After a few hours of hiking along the trail, I reached Horse Creek, a small tributary of the Salmon River. The creek was…

  • Franz

    Lost in the Winds

    by Harriet Greene Wind River Range, Bridger Wilderness, Pinedale, Wyoming:  The West was drier than it had been in years. Two nearby fires were almost under control. Elkhart Park was closed as well as the south entrance to Yellowstone, nowhere near our direction. After thirteen hours on the road we arrived at our friend’s home…

  • The Boundary Waters

    by Suez Jacobson A long wait – almost 50 years – to learnHow deeply and completelyThe wild magic of the Boundary WatersCould burrow. A self-identified mountain girlLost to still, flat black waterContained by granite outcroppingsLayered in midnight green pinesTopped with iridescent spring birches. In a place of pure stillness. A quiet a city dweller doesn’t…

  • Floating the Grand Canyon

    by Howie Wolke In late October, Marilyn and I headed south for a 226 mile 21-day float trip down the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. There were four of us, in two rafts. For most of the 20,000 or so folks who annually float the Colorado, the scenery and numerous challenging rapids are big…

  • An Art of Conducting Oneself

    By Paul Willis There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.  —René Daumal, Mount Analogue Sitting here, high on the shoulder of a peak in the Ansel Adams Wilderness, I am looking down at a grassy swale where I startled a herd of eleven…

  • Arctic Dreams

    By Ned Vasquez For many years, dating back even to my childhood, I have dreamed of spending time in the Alaskan wilderness. In August, 2019 this dream became a reality when my middle daughter and I spent 9 days rafting the Kongakut River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Our trip was organized through a…

  • Arctic Time

    By Frank Keim Old days drift slowly into new daysand the white eye of the Arctic sun rollsbright across the night,as we treksouthup the Hulahula River,named more than a century agoby Hawaiian whalers strandedon an ocean cold and frozenbefore its time. We stop at vestigesof ancient Eskimo campswhere the only traces areoil lamps made of…

  • NOT Alone in the Wilderness…

    By Cathy Brandt Due to life-long arthritis and now a bit of the “A” word (age), I can’t hike very deep into wilderness areas. However, when I do I’m looking to experience solitude—to get away from masses of people and their litter, cell phones, dogs barking, and aircraft noise. It’s very sad that some people…

  • Toads in the sand: How the Juniper Dunes Wilderness protects wildlife from motorized wreckreation

    By Scott Crain The Juniper Dunes Wilderness area is a 7000-acre part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, located in southeastern Washington State. It lies just a few miles north of what used to be a quiet part of the state, now exploding with population and development. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation lies a few miles…

  • The Boundary Waters and an Over-Reliance on Technology

    By Kevin Proescholdt In August, my family and I enjoyed our second canoe trip of the summer in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) of northeastern Minnesota.  The 1.1 million-acre BWCAW is a lakeland wilderness with over 1,000 lakes connected by rivers, streams and portage trails. It is part of Superior National Forest and is…

  • Cumberland Island

    By Jessica Howell-Edwards Cumberland Island Wilderness is part of the Cumberland Island National Seashore in southern Georgia, administered by the National Park Service (NPS). It was previously sanctioned as a UN Biosphere Reserve, and is located just miles from Kings Bay Naval Base and also nuclear warhead storage. I firmly believe that all Wilderness experiences…

Photo: Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona by Bob Wick/BLM