Wildest part of your state or province

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Dec 23, 2021
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Wyoming - The Thorofare is the most remote place anywhere in the U.S.,,, lower 48.

Also a whole lot of no civilization in the Red Desert of Wyoming. I love going out exploring either on the motorcycle or with the truck and a varmint rifle.

Naturally Alaska has so much remote country it’s laughable to compare it with any other state.
 
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Jauwater

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North Carolina is pretty populated these days, but there are some small-ish patches of land in the mountains, and towards the coast that you can get away in. I've done a ton of trail hiking in the state, and for trail travel the mountain section of the MST can get pretty remote believe it or not. It takes you through the roughest sections of the carolina mountains forsure. There are also areas off the Blue Ridge Parkway that are remote. One time I parked near Rough Ridge, and I hiked 7 miles off trail before I realized I was getting lost.

There is an Island off the coast, Cape Lookout National Seashore. I used to camp there quite often. There is really only one spot on the island that tourist reguarly visit. One time I spent 4 days on that island without seeing a single person, boat, plane, anything. Probably the most vulnerable I've ever felt staying on that island.

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I've lived and worked in a few states. These are some of the wildest areas I've visited - not necessarily wilderness areas, but remote and occasionally hard to get to.

Arizona: the Apache National Forest south of Alpine and the Blue Range area. Saw the biggest elk I've ever seen in my life while working there on a wildland fire. I like the high alpine terrain of the Rockies, but the area around the Blue Vista overlook on 191 is pretty awesome.

New Mexico: I worked out on some lands on the east side of Mt. Taylor that took forever to get through - highly restricted access. Felt like I'd left civilization entirely although you could drive to it and still pick up FM stations from Albuquerque. It is very easy to drive off the beaten path in NM and very quickly feel like you're in another world.

South Dakota: the bar is pretty low here, but I like the west side of the Black Hills, northwest of Custer. Not much traffic except for hunters and loggers, and the weather is nice in the summer. Roads everywhere, though.

Colorado: I don't want to share, sorry.
 
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Being in the southeast, we don’t have the “wild and remote” places that many people think of. But there are some, they may not be as massive as some out west, AK.

Linville gorge in NC is pretty wild, especially off trail. Lots of people get hurt and die in the Gorge every year.

Great Dismal swamp. Full of mean snakes, big bears and giant mosquitos. It’s thick as hell and very few terrain features. You can lost super fast.

Alligator River NWR is another. Nasty, thick pocosin swamps. Can’t see 5 feet. It’s home to 600lb black bears, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, alligators and a host of other nasty critters.
 

pozzit

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Baker City OR
I have always loved wild and remote country. By that, I mean places where people seldom, if ever, visit. Places can be rugged and remote yet still get tons of hikers and hunters every year like central CO where I saw more people in a day that I did in a whole season in the Ozarks when I was a kid. Discounting private land, where are the wildest and least frequented areas of your state/province?

For some the places I have lived/worked, I would submit the following:

Utah - Henry Mts or area east of the Book Cliffs
North Carolina - Nantahala NF and Snowbird Mts north of town of Murphy
Wyoming - parts of the Wind Rivers that border the reservation

I would be interested to hear from you guys up in Alaska and northern Canada what you think are the wildest areas up there that don't even see many hunters during hunting season. I imagine parts of the Brooks Range, western islands, and Makenzie Mts in NWT north of the Nahanni Valley have places that go years without seeing hunters and climbers.
Oregon

Hells canyon and the eagle cap wilderness
 
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Colorado
Colorado is definitely a toss up between the San Juan's in SW Colorado and Saudi Aurora. That place is getting downright scary!!! (from what I hear. I wouldn't go there for any reason)
 
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A number of places in Colorado I hunt or have hunted or spend time in during the summer. Those are my "when it all goes wrong and crap is hitting the fan" places.
 

thinhorn_AK

"DADDY"
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Jul 2, 2016
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Alaska
I've lived and worked in a few states. These are some of the wildest areas I've visited - not necessarily wilderness areas, but remote and occasionally hard to get to.

Arizona: the Apache National Forest south of Alpine and the Blue Range area. Saw the biggest elk I've ever seen in my life while working there on a wildland fire. I like the high alpine terrain of the Rockies, but the area around the Blue Vista overlook on 191 is pretty awesome.

New Mexico: I worked out on some lands on the east side of Mt. Taylor that took forever to get through - highly restricted access. Felt like I'd left civilization entirely although you could drive to it and still pick up FM stations from Albuquerque. It is very easy to drive off the beaten path in NM and very quickly feel like you're in another world.

South Dakota: the bar is pretty low here, but I like the west side of the Black Hills, northwest of Custer. Not much traffic except for hunters and loggers, and the weather is nice in the summer. Roads everywhere, though.

Colorado: I don't want to share, sorry.

Did you see any tahr there by mount Taylor? My friend swore up and down that he saw one once out that way. As it turns out there was a high fence exotic animal hunting g operation out there at one point and when they closed down they let some tahr loose. There was a pic on the internet a few years back of a guy who killed one with a bow, claimed it was by mount Taylor but I don’t know if that was ever confirmed.
 
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Steamboat Springs
I have hunted north of there for the past 26 seasons, definitely some out of the way territory in the Zirkel wilderness and north toward Hahns Peak. When the snow starts flying 2nd or 3rd season, 3 or 4 miles from a road feels like a long ways when you think about hauling in or hauling out.
 
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Joined
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Grand Junction
Did you see any tahr there by mount Taylor? My friend swore up and down that he saw one once out that way. As it turns out there was a high fence exotic animal hunting g operation out there at one point and when they closed down they let some tahr loose. There was a pic on the internet a few years back of a guy who killed one with a bow, claimed it was by mount Taylor but I don’t know if that was ever confirmed.
I didn't see any tahr, but that area was thicker with big game than any other part of the state I've visited except maybe the Gila. This was deep into a very large area of mixed private and Indian land. I guess I forgot the "except for private land" part of OP's question.
 
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Maryland
Bering Sea, unless you are in the commercial fishing industry you'll probably never see it outside of "Deadliest Catch".
Picked up a guy from one of the Diomede islands once as an observer for a cruise up north. The whole time we were seeing seal, bears, walrus, etc, he was beside himself with the fact that he wasn't allow to pack his AR10. ;-).
 

SMOKYMTN

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Dec 18, 2017
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Smoky Mountains
North Carolina is pretty populated these days, but there are some small-ish patches of land in the mountains, and towards the coast that you can get away in. I've done a ton of trail hiking in the state, and for trail travel the mountain section of the MST can get pretty remote believe it or not. It takes you through the roughest sections of the carolina mountains forsure. There are also areas off the Blue Ridge Parkway that are remote. One time I parked near Rough Ridge, and I hiked 7 miles off trail before I realized I was getting lost.

There is an Island off the coast, Cape Lookout National Seashore. I used to camp there quite often. There is really only one spot on the island that tourist reguarly visit. One time I spent 4 days on that island without seeing a single person, boat, plane, anything. Probably the most vulnerable I've ever felt staying on that island.

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North Carolina is is still more rural than most people believe. Like many states in the South, it is growing HOWEVER for a state consisting of 100 counties, half of NC's population resides in only 10 of them. Hyde County is still one of the more least densely populated counties on the entire East Coast. Parts of WNC are the same. As a matter of fact, in WNC alone there are 1.5 million acres of federal land and over 100,000 acres of state managed land.
 

Yarak

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Not many places to get lost in Sweet Home Alabama that a few hours walk wont get you to a road of some kind but we do have a good variety of terrain features in the state
Mountains to the north, hills and hollows in the middle, prairie and swamps down south
 

3325

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Did you see any tahr there by mount Taylor? My friend swore up and down that he saw one once out that way. As it turns out there was a high fence exotic animal hunting g operation out there at one point and when they closed down they let some tahr loose. There was a pic on the internet a few years back of a guy who killed one with a bow, claimed it was by mount Taylor but I don’t know if that was ever confirmed.
Wow, this is the first I’ve heard of tahr in the U.S. I know there are aoudad populations in the southwest but I was not aware of tahr. Interesting.

Mixed emotions, though. Exotic animals are intriguing but the reality is they likely compete with desert bighorn populations. And I’m all for wild sheep wherever there is suitable habitat.
 
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Ridley

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Oct 27, 2020
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Wow, this is the first I’ve heard of tahr in the U.S. I know there are aoudad populations in the southwest but I was not aware of tahr. Interesting.

Mixed emotions, though. Exotic animals are intriguing but the reality is they likely compete with desert bighorn populations. And I’m all for wild sheep wherever there is suitable habitat.
I grew up just north of ABQ and have spent some time on Mt Taylor, but that was back in the late 80s and early 90s before I went off to college in Wisconsin. At that time there were supposed to be aoudad on Mt Taylor too. We never found them though. We did have success for aoudad down south near Roswell on public land. That whole NW quarter of the state from Gallup up to Colorado is extremely remote and as previously mentioned tricky because of reservation lands and other private blocks. I miss my home state very very much.
 
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South of international falls Minnesota. Pine island state forest. Thick and nasty giant swamp. You'll need a blood transfusion after the mosquitoes are done with you in the summer.
 

Marble

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I am in California and the north coast area is extreme. steep, always wet, and about as rugged as it gets.
True...

Not sure if it's on topic exactly, but that area is very secluded. It's not uncommon to have a 3 hour response time for emergency services.

The most secluded I have ever been was in CO. About 12,000', a day's ride and half a day's hike. It's wild. But not nearly what I imagine parts of Alaska and Canada have.

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Marble

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I’m sorry.
Most of us are too.

What's shocking to most people is far northern California. It is shockingly full of real mountains, lakes and water features that even most people who live here haven't seen. The bad thing is it's still in California.

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