"Maybe not. Although often quoted as such, it appears that it isn't correct if you count unpaved roads. It seems that the correct figure for SE Yellowstone is apparently only 8.1 miles, so it isn't in the top 5 wildest areas in Wyoming."

Scott,

With all due respect if you can show me ANY road that gets me just 8.1 miles from Bridger Lake I'll be a millionaire before you know it and will either buy you a gross of ramen noodles or pay your Friday Happy Hour in thanks. Hell its a couple of dozen miles just from Turpin Meadow to Pendergraft. Big Springs on the Soda Fork is almost 15 miles. Two Ocean is like 18 miles. And Bridger Lake is indeed over 30 miles along the Lake, Ishawooa, S. Boundary Trail, etc: so with an admitted local bias I really have to wonder what kind of crack the folks that concieved of your "core" requirements were smoking. Where's the road?

This has been an awesome thread and I hope it continues.

With all due respect if you can show me ANY road that gets me just 8.1 miles from Bridger Lake I'll be a millionaire before you know it and will either buy you a gross of ramen noodles or pay your Friday Happy Hour in thanks. Hell its a couple of dozen miles just from Turpin Meadow to Pendergraft. Big Springs on the Soda Fork is almost 15 miles. Two Ocean is like 18 miles. And Bridger Lake is indeed over 30 miles along the Lake, Ishawooa, S. Boundary Trail, etc: so with an admitted local bias I really have to wonder what kind of crack the folks that concieved of your "core" requirements were smoking. Where's the road?

It appears they included that area in the Teton Wilderness complex (26.2 miles from any road).

I delete the post until I finish measuring everything myself (or with help from SP members). It will take a while, but feel free to help. This could make a good SP project. If we could get some members to help compile stats for each state, it would make things easier. Someone has to check the Frank Church Wilderness area as well as the stats have come into question. The only problem is that not all roads appear on maps, but it would be an interesting project.

Goat creek.... although I wouldnt say which one! Also, definition of remote seems to be the key here....

The benchmark brand atlas' have been very reliable for showing most roads in an area, at least based on my experiences using it in SE Oregon. With that said I think you can safely rule out all of SE Oregon if basing this argument on roads, that part of the state is almost completely BLM land and is blanketed in 4x4 roads. Largely this applies to SW Idaho and the Owyhee Basin also. Its remote and rarely traveled, but 4x4 roads can be found all over the place. Looking at the Idaho Benchmark atlas it looks like the most remote part of the Owyhees is the West Fork Red Canyon Wilderness Study Area with maybe a diameter of 5 roadless miles.

And again, going to the benchmark atlas it looks like Frank Church has a diameter of about 25 roadless miles centered around the Cabin Creek Airstrip.

it looks like Frank Church has a diameter of about 25 roadless miles centered around the Cabin Creek Airstrip

It looks to me like you could draw a circle of 16 mile radius around the Cabin Creek area without hitting a road. There's another spot around Chamberlain Ridge that looks similarly remote, about 16 miles. If someone has an idea of anywhere else in the Frank that's deeper, I'd love to look at it.

These numbers are pretty well in accord with some 15-16 mile figures I've seen in a couple other web sources. The 60 mile figure from Wild Idaho cannot possibly be correct, or even close. All those indentations in the wilderness boundary that look like cherry-stemmed roads are indeed roads.

Also, it's worth pointing out again that the Frank has airstrips, which I'd say does factor into evaluations of remoteness. I love the Frank, it's one of my very favorite places and I like it better than the Yellowstone vicinity. But that Teton-Washakie area has no airstrips plus grizzlies, and that definitely makes a difference.

This could make a good SP project. If we could get some members to help compile stats for each state, it would make things easier.

Yes, indeed! I'd be happy to spend a little time investigating, but I'm not sure if I'd be genuinely useful without GIS software.

For Oregon, the fewest people I have encountered while backpacking is descending from Hat Point into Hells Canyon on the Oregon Idaho border. Yes, you will occasionally see a speedboat on the Snake River, but I have never run into a fellow backpacker over several trips. Very pretty looking across the canyon at Seven Devils. I will have to check them out sometime in the future.

4x4 roads exist in these places but they are rarely driven or not driven anymore, this is what I would consider the most remote places I have seen in SE Oregon.

mickey basin and coyote lake basin


owyhee uplands


Butchers Flat and Hawks Valley Area

Minnesota...I would guess somewhere in the middle of the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. However if you are up there in peak season it can feel like the exact opposite of remote. The key is to brave the cold and head up there when the lakes are frozen over...definitely remote.

Perhaps Dry Tortugas? You certainly don't have to worry about HACE there.

In Virginia, I'd have to go with the Dismal Swamp, since it has some spots you can't exactly bushwhack to.

Being originally from Rhode Island a state that takes an hour to drive between 2 furthest points I was curious, so with google's help this is my best guess. In top Northwest corner Buck Hill covers a total land area of 2049 acres. The area is composed of primarily forest land (deciduous 1815 acres, evergreen 3.2 acres), wetlands (201 acres), and agricultural lands (14.6 acres). The DFW maintains a wildlife marsh (approximately 30.7 acres) which serves to attract waterfowl, furbearers such as muskrat, and other wetland dependent birds.

Buck Hill does look like a good candidate for RI - nearly a mile road-free radius. I was going to suggest the Worden Pond side of the Great Swamp (southwest of URI Kingston) until I discovered a couple of dirt roads on the hillock there that come in real close (and give access to an awful lot of clear-cutting for a wildlife reservation?? "88 acres agricultural land" - and a shooting range! Edit: technically it's a "Wildlife Management Area" and the shooting range is adjacent but legally separate).

I grew up in Scituate, RI where we have the resivour that provides the water for Providence and is protected from trespass, hiking, swimming, fishing, etc and I wandered illegally through some miles of "wilderness" so counting water its semi remote.

How about this: point furthest from any interstate, within the lower 48. Taking a "break" from studying for finals, I tried to see if I could figure this one out. There are a few possible spots, it also depends how you classify it. All these distances are "as the crow flies".

Furthest point (that I found) from any interstate lies on the US/Canadian Border in northern Montana approximately at N 48.999656, W 107.695634. About equidistant from I15 south of Sunburst MT and I94 at West Glendive, MT, at ~190 miles, give or take a mile. This is the furthest point from any interstate overall, though since it's right on an international boundary, some may think it doesn't count.

Another contender could be this point: N 47.479758, W 87.968488. 183 miles from I75 just east of Rudyard, MI.

There are many large regions lined by Interstates in the Great Plains and the West. The seemingly largest one of these areas is surrounded by I15, I5, and I80, and encompasses parts of UT, NV, and CA, yet surprisingly, the point within this area furthest from any of these interstates is in Nye County NV (N 38.137041, W 116.539078), and is only about 150 miles from I15 near Vegas.

This is all pretty rudimentary work done on Google Earth, and if somebody spent more time, I'm sure they could more accurately pinpoint the locations, but I've got to get back to studying! Finals are approaching!