Recreational Activities

So Much To Do and See in the Northern Region

Follow the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the Bitterroot Mountains, catch your limit of trout at a pristine alpine lake, or camp under the stars and listen to the howl of the wolf. Whether you're looking for the rigors of a wilderness trek or an easy drive along a scenic byway, you'll find it here in the National Forests of the Northern Region.

The Forest Service offers many activities such as hiking, biking, skiing, camping, birding, renting historic cabins and lookouts, driving for pleasure, harvesting mushrooms, and gathering firewood. Many of the facilities and services associated with these opportunities are free. Some do require fees or permits to help maintain, manage and improve the amenities that you enjoy.

Please refer to the new Recreation Passes and Permits web page to help you understand where fees and passes exist and the variety of pass options available to you.

Recreation Facility Analysis (RFA) Project*

While the Northern Region provides a wide array of recreation opportunities, some recreation sites on the forests and grasslands are beginning to see the effects of time and years of use. Many of the Forest Service's developed recreation sites were built some 30-50 years ago, and are reaching the end of their designed life. Please visit our RFA page for more detailed information about this planning process.

*This process was called Recreation Site-Facility Master Planning (RS-FMP.) However, the Forest Service recognized, as a result of the findings of a team chartered specifically to review the public participation efforts associated with this analysis process, that the term “master planning” could imply that this is a decision-making process as opposed to an analytic one. Therefore, based on a recommendation from that team, the Forest Service decided to refer to the analysis of recreation facilities more accurately and simply as Recreation Facility Analysis.

Check out the links to the right and below for more recreation information.

	Link to the Region One historic cabin and lookout rental directory. In the Northern Region, cabin and lookout rental reservations can now be made through Recreation.gov.
	Trails Information in the Northern Region
Wilderness Areas in the Northern Region
	Wild and Scenic Rivers in the Northern Region