Remote Locations

[Guest bunkerdave]

I read an article some years ago where the "loneliest spot in the lower 48 states" was determined to be in Utah on the Kaiparaowits Plateau. This was done using maps, and the spot which was the farthest from any towns or inhabited dwellings was selected as the "most remote." I was out GeoDashing on Monday, (8/6) and found myself cruising across the Salt Lake Desert west of Salt Lake City. The dashpoint was a little more than a mile north of the interstate. When I got there, I looked around in all directions, and except for the mountains the East of me, it was COMPLETELY flat for easily 30-40 miles in all directions. Nothing grew taller than about 8-10 inches, so it was particularly interesting.

 

I wonder if there are other places in the US that could be considered "very remote." Utah and Nevada have more than their share, I know - I have been to many of them. These really have a very unique spirit about them, and are usually worth visiting just to see how BIG the world is. Anyone have any ideas?

[Guest EyezOfTheWorld]

quote:

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Originally posted by bunkerdave:

Anyone have any ideas?

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Yup.

 

Wanna hear 'em?

 

Montana and Idaho. Up there in the Rockies there's a Wilderness Area, actually three all connected - Great Bear, Bob Marshall, & Scapegoat. I've done a lot of hiking in there and depending how far you go you can easily get 15 miles away from any population east & west, 30-50 miles north & south. Not easily accesible, though. This is rugged land along the Continental Divide.

 

Also, the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness southwest of Missoula. This lies in the Bitterroot Range. From Salmon, Idaho to Kellogg, Idaho you're lookin' at 150 miles of remoteness SE to NW and east to west anywhere from 30 to 60 miles. That's another area larger than Rhode Island, a whoooooooole lotta square miles of nothing except grizzlies, mountain lions, and maybe a few mountain men.

 

Just south of Selway-Bitterroot is the Frank Church Wilderness which is more of the same.

 

I'd lay down money that these areas I've mentioned are easily in the Top Ten in the Lower 48 for being most remote. Something so wonderful about each of 'em is all you've gotta do is get a mile up from a trailhead and already you feel like you're 20 miles from nothing.

[Guest WaylandersMA]

Utah wins in my book. Two years ago my family and I did a drive through Cathedral Valley in August. In at the Freemont R. Ford, out 70 miles later on Rt. 72. 7AM to 5PM we did not see another soul or vehicle. (One jet at 40K).

Lunch at noon at pyramid of the moon. I70 I think may be 40 miles north but that is the closest tar which you can't see or get to.

 

I thought the lack of anyone else might be a fluke so we did the whole Cathedral Valley loop a few weeks ago. We saw one jeep as we made are way out the Bentonite Hills.

The traffic congestion may have been the cool temps. It never broke 100.

[Guest Havasu Desert Rat]

The Arizona Strip, which you guys from Utah might be familiar with since it borders Utah, has some pretty lonely locations. Although there are little ranch roads scattered about, there is only one "settlement" on the whole strip, and that is for all intents and purposes a ghost town now.

[Guest bunkerdave]

For all intents, the strip is part of Utah, since to get there from AZ you have to go through either NV or UT. Brilliant piece of border-work, that. I used to work as a Fuel Tax Auditor for the State of Utah, and it is pretty impressive the amount of revenue AZ gets for its roads from the big rigs running that little 29.3 mile stretch of I-15.

[Guest bob_renner]

quote:

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Originally posted by bunkerdave:

For all intents, the strip is part of Utah, since to get there from AZ you have to go through either NV or UT. ...

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There is one entrance to the strip which does not require going through NV or UT - the bridge over the Colorado river at Marble Canyon. Other than that, you're right. (There's also the bridge at Gled Canyon Dam, but that road doesn't provide access to very much of AZ).

 

Bob

[Guest bunkerdave]

Intersting, Bob. I was not aware of that bridge. What highway is that?

[Guest Moun10Bike]

I heard a radio interview a couple of years ago with someone who had done a study of the most remote spot in the Lower 48. They defined that as being the farthest away from the nearest road. The spot turned out to be within the confines of Yellowstone National Park. If I remember correctly, it was only something like 11 miles to the nearest road.

 

[This message has been edited by Moun10Bike (edited 14 August 2001).]

[Guest bob_renner]

UOTE>quote:

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Originally posted by bunkerdave:

Intersting, Bob. I was not aware of that bridge. What highway is that?

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Alt 89. It's where the turnoff is for Lee's Ferry and where most raft trips start.

 

Bob

[Guest bunkerdave]

That is not too surprising. I think the one I read defined it as the farthest from a populated area or habitation. That would account for the difference, since there are lots of "roads" in the Kaiparowits, depending how you define "road."

[Rockaria]

Just glancing at my US interstate atlas... it seems as if there are some VERY barren areas that nobody has mentioned so far. Not necessarily mountainous, or treacherous terrain, but simply way off the beaten path in the middle of nowhere, very far from a major road. The scenery may not be much, but it looks like it would be a long way to get to.

 

I admit I've never been to any of these places, but by looking at the map, it looks like some parts of south-central OREGON have extremely limited access by road - north of the National Antelope Refuge for example.

 

Also, parts of North-Central/North-West Nebraska, around the Sand Hills looks pretty desolate.

 

And plenty of space in northern Nevada. Just my two cents! It would be interesting to figure out how to trek 20 miles from a little state highway into the middle of nowhere to find a cache.

[+StarBrand]

I read a recent article that stated that a forest ranger cabin named Thorofare cabin just outside the southeast boundry of Yellowstone National Park is the most remote cabin in the lower 48 states. Something like 35 miles to the nearest road of any description. 3 Wilderness areas and Yellowstone border it along with Teton National Forest. Some of the pictures they had were nothing short of spectacular. The nearest Geocache is 34 miles away!!

 

Search Google and you can find several references to it. Or visit This Site where they claim it as the most remote spot in the lower 48.

[+StarBrand]

Followup:

 

Visit This Web Site

[+KKTH3]

Good article StarBrand!

 

I would imagine I could find quite a number of fairly remote areas here in Wyoming - especially in Yellowstone. Also hearing about the trek into that ranger station starting from the East Gate - that is some rough terrain to the south of the highway there. The hike in would be not only a long hike in, but a difficult one as well.

 

The oldest cache in Wyoming that has yet to be "found" is a virtual cache in Yellowstone NP. It is located at a cabin on an island in the southwestern part of Yellowstone lake. To get to the island you must take a rowboat (no motorized craft allowed) 15 miles from the nearest access point on the lake. Needless to say, the only realistic way to reach this part of the lake is to spend several days camping by boat in the woods. The lake is quite large for being this high in the mountains and has lots of desolate places to explore.

 

Southeastern Oregon was mentioned earlier in the thread. That is another rural area I have spent a lot of time - in fact I still own property just outside of Merrill, OR (the property is actually in CA, but the nearest town is in Oregon) but there are actually a good number of potato farms in that part of the state, so I can see how there is still a good number of roads in the area. That whole area can be pretty isolated, however, from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, to Lassen VNP in CA, to Klamath Falls, OR, to the snake river valley in SW Idaho. There is a lot of good trout fishing there if you know where to look too!

 

The most remote camp I ever remember being at was on hte east side of Lassen VNP. I hiked up to a lake that was in one of the most remote parts of the park based upon how far away it was from any roads and camped by the lakeshore. It was incredible how dark it was that night and one thing I noticed while looking at the stars was a notable object crossing the sky like a satillite, only it looked much larger than a satillite. I found out when I got home a few days later that the space shuttle mission in progress at the time was in a lower than normal orbit and was visible from the ground. Looking through past articles I saw that it was due to pass over Sacramento just a few minutes earlier than the time when I saw it and could see by the path it was taking that undoubtably that was what I had seen. I guess that is what marked that campsite as being so remote to me - by how little light there was polluting the sky, that I could actually see the space shuttle in orbit.

[+brodiebunch]

Bitterroot Range

Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mts., on the Idaho-Mont. line. The main range, running northwest-southeast, includes Trapper Peak (10,175 ft/3,101 m high); Mt. Garfield (10,961 ft/3,341 m), in an east-running spur to the south, is the highest peak. Discovered in the 1804–5 expedition of Lewis and Clark, the rugged mountain range has long been one of the most impenetrable in the United States; except for its foothills, it remains almost completely unexploited.

 

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2005, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

 

Unexploited and unexplored may go hand in hand.........

[+Salvelinus]

I read a recent article that stated that a forest ranger cabin named Thorofare cabin just outside the southeast boundry of Yellowstone National Park is the most remote cabin in the lower 48 states. Something like 35 miles to the nearest road of any description. 3 Wilderness areas and Yellowstone border it along with Teton National Forest. Some of the pictures they had were nothing short of spectacular. The nearest Geocache is 34 miles away!!

 

Search Google and you can find several references to it. Or visit This Site where they claim it as the most remote spot in the lower 48.

I think you are correct!

 

I've gone into the Thorofare River via horseback on a fishing/camping trip and our guides told us exactly the same thing. They were very concerned about some road thats proposed for the area and losing their somewhat unique guide business.

 

Salvelinus

[+Salvelinus]

Unexploited and unexplored may go hand in hand.........

True...but remoteness may not be a part of either of them.

 

A place dosn't have to be remote to be unexplored and unexploited. Most of Yellowstone National Park is a classic example. Also, very remote places such as the Thorofare River Valley is very remote but often explored.

 

Salvelinus

[+Salvelinus]

Just glancing at my US interstate atlas... it seems as if there are some VERY barren areas that nobody has mentioned so far.

Try looking at a USGS topo map. There are tons more roads in areas that you would never see on a US Interstate Atlas.

 

Salvelinus

[+Jennifer&Dean]

Bitterroot Range

Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mts., on the Idaho-Mont. line. The main range, running northwest-southeast, includes Trapper Peak (10,175 ft/3,101 m high); Mt. Garfield (10,961 ft/3,341 m), in an east-running spur to the south, is the highest peak. Discovered in the 1804–5 expedition of Lewis and Clark, the rugged mountain range has long been one of the most impenetrable in the United States; except for its foothills, it remains almost completely unexploited.

 

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2005, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

 

Unexploited and unexplored may go hand in hand.........

Trapper Peak

 

Not totally unexplored, at least from the Montana side.

There area some real nice caches in the valleys on the Montana side of the border.

-J

[+TeamAO]

Bitterroot Range

Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mts., on the Idaho-Mont. line. The main range, running northwest-southeast, includes Trapper Peak (10,175 ft/3,101 m high); Mt. Garfield (10,961 ft/3,341 m), in an east-running spur to the south, is the highest peak. Discovered in the 1804–5 expedition of Lewis and Clark, the rugged mountain range has long been one of the most impenetrable in the United States; except for its foothills, it remains almost completely unexploited.

 

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2005, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

 

Unexploited and unexplored may go hand in hand.........

Trapper Peak

 

Not totally unexplored, at least from the Montana side.

There area some real nice caches in the valleys on the Montana side of the border.

-J

That is a lonely cache right there.

[+dingermcduff]

There are still some very remote parts of northern Minnesota...especially in the winter!

[+Salvelinus]

There are still some very remote parts of northern Minnesota...especially in the winter!

Ha Ha

 

Been up there exploring numerous times with a fishing rod and canoe. I agree totally!

 

Salvelinus

[+jimmyreno]

I'd say the summit of Mt Fury in the North cascades NP is the most remote.

 

After climbing the peak it took 4 hours to get back to camp, then 3 and a half full, hard days of hiking/climbing to get back to the car. The weather was getting worse so we didn't take any side trips on the way out.

 

It was worth it tho

Edited September 25, 2005 by jimmyreno