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Perhaps we all know that a bushwhacking mile can change peoples opinions on this topic. Given your opinion on the matter, what do YOU think it is?

Colorado is almost certainly the least wild of the western states, but luckily there are some fairly remote areas left.

The core of the Weminuche is the most remote and wild area in Colorado if the criteria of the maximum straight-line distance from the roads is used.

Even so, in some ways some of the parts of Dinosaur National Monument feel more remote to me even though they aren't quite as far from any roads. The terrain there is very rugged, so there is no such thing as a straight-line distances and the amount of time it takes to get into some areas is staggering.

For example, it took me three years to find a viable route up to the valleys, canyons, flats and crags around Outlaw Peak. The area is remote enough that while we were exploring the canyon after climbing the peak, we discovered what turned out to be one of the world's largest arches in a place that likely hadn't ever been visited by anyone before 2006. You can read something about it below:

http://www.summitpost.org/article/272889/the-discovery-of-outlaw-arch.html

As remote as it is however, the canyon systems just east of there may be more remote. I spent several trips over a period of six years to find a viable route in. I was unsuccessful and put the project on the backburner, but maybe some day......

Anyway, I've been exploring the area for well over two decades now. I've run ito people on the pretty well know hikes of Harpers Corner and Jones Hole. Outside those areas in the other 25 years or so, not only have I never ran into another person, but I've only found one cairn in the entire region and have never found even one footprint.

Outside CO though, I've been into many more remote areas than this so they do exist if you look for them.

41°44'12.43"N/123°40'39.97"W

Should I tell?............. then it won't be remote anymore. Uhhmm?

Happily married, but the most remote place, my bedroom. Most of the
time only one person, my wife. Sometimes both of us. Sorry for the poor
humor. I'm way out there though, remote.

My State of Trance

Here in Washington common wisdom suggests that the middle of the Picket Range is the most remote spot. I am guessing that there may be some spot in Eastern Washington that is farther from a road or a boat dock though.

In Arizona, I'd vote for some of the "peninsulas" of the Shivwits Plateau that extend into the Grand Canyon. For example, the location of Mt Dellenbaugh and lands south of it. Yes, there is a paved road probably within a 25-mile radius, but the Grand Canyon lies in the way. To get to some of these spots requires 80+ miles of dirt roads.

The well-known Toroweap Overlook is over 60 miles of dirt road from the nearest paved road in Fredonia, and you do feel like you're at the end of the world there... but a look at the map shows many more, far more removed spots, possibly visited by just a handful of people in the last century (??).

Other places might include the Cabeza Prieta in Yuma County, or some of the more remote canyons and mesas up on the Hopi and Navajo lands.

My first thought was Teddy Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch. The remoteness (is that a word?) is the exact reason he chose it.

But, there are probably more remote areas of the state. I would guess the Achenbach Hills of the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park would would rank at the top. Nearly all of the North Unit of THRO is wilderness, but the portion south of the Little Missouri River is less accessible.


Good topic, by the way.

In Massachusetts? The maximum straight-line distance from a road is probably about a mile. Close call between a couple of islands in the middle of the Quabbin Reservoir, the edges of some state forests in the Berkshires, maybe even a spot on the Cape Cod National Seashore. My guess is a spot about a mile east of the Cheshire Reservoir.

That's not counting islands - either the southern tip of Shooters Island south of cape cod, or Graves Island outside Boston Harbor, would win if islands are counted - each very roughly five miles from any road - , unless there's a further tiny island I don't know about. (The islands in the Quabbin mentioned above are in a different category since that lake is artificial.)

In Cali, as defined by being furthest from a road? Could well be Blue Canyon, out of the Middle Fork of The Kings River near Tehipite Dome.

Here Blue Canyon is in the background, seen looking across the Gorge of Despair from the top of The Silver Turret.

Guy Keesee Photo

Catamount, speaking of the Adirondacks I felt pretty remote being out in that chasm between Marcy and Haystack, Panther Gorge is my recollection of the place name.

Most remote?

The state capitol. They're so far out of touch that it's not funny.

The middle of Lake Michigan. It's very much like an ocean. You can't see the shoreline on either side from the middle of the lake unless it is very clear.

The unanswerable way to pose the question is:
What is the largest diameter circle that can be drawn on the map (of a state, any state, the nation, or even the world) inside of which no human as ever set foot? Only God knows that one.

In Washington, for example, what is the diameter of that circle. Is it a quarter-mile across? Less? More?

And where is that circle? Is it a place in the Pickets, as Excitable Boy mentioned? More likely, it would be a place at the head of Baker River.

Hmmmm....

Klenke wrote: the head of Baker River.

Hmmmm....

That is hard to get to. A few friends did a trip up there going as few as .3 miles/day through devil's club.

What about in Idaho? Frank church is pretty big isn't it?

I like the tid bit about CA's southrn sierra Near Tehiphite dome.

What about New Mexico?

Or, Alaska?