Wilderness Photos
View more wilderness photos on
@BLMOregon Flickr channel.
The BLM manages eight Wilderness Areas in Oregon (nearly 247,000 acres) and one Wilderness Area in Washington (over 7,000 acres). Wilderness Areas are designated by Congress. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as “an area ... which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature ...; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land...; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.
The United States Congress designated the Hells Canyon Wilderness in 1975 and it now has a total of 217,927 acres. Idaho contains approximately 83,811 acres. Oregon contains approximately 134,116 acres. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. Hells Canyon Wilderness is a subset of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (HCNRA), which straddles the border of northeastern Oregon and western Idaho. Split into two distinct halves by the Wild & Scenic Snake River, approximately one-third of HCNRA is designated Wilderness. A small portion of the Wilderness in Oregon is managed by the BLM.
Visit our wilderness pages in Oregon and Washington through the links below.