Also on Backpacker.com

EDITORS' CHOICE AWARDS 2009: THE BEST NEW GEAR

OVER 3,000 GPS-ENABLED TRIPS!

DAILY DIRT BLOG: THE LATEST OUTDOOR NEWS

GEAR CHICK: YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

MEDICINE MAN: ESSENTIAL SKILLS REVEALED

BACKPACKING 101: GET STARTED NOW!

VIDEOS: FEND OFF A BEAR, PACK RIGHT, AND MORE.

PHOTOS: FEAST YOUR EYES WITH THESE SHOTS

Share your tales of travel & adventure with our step-by-step guide. Upload trail descriptions, photos, video, and more.

Backpacker Magazine – September 2008

Destination Nowhere

The most remote spot in the Lower 48 is inside Yellowstone National Park. It's also the goal of our correspondent. What he encounters–and what it says about the solitude backpackers treasure–will surprise you. PLUS: See more of his photos and read a Q&A.

by: Mark Jenkins, story and photos

1 2 3 4

Colored algae grows on thermal pools along the Snake River.

1 2 3 4

Sunburned brush below electric peak.

1 2 3 4

Hours-old, 8-inch-wide grizzly tracks.

1 2 3 4

Gaillard documents the day's hour-long wolf serenade.

Need More Nowhere? Author Mark Jenkins goes deeper into the concept of wilderness, how to protect it, and what the middle of nowhere is really like in this extended Q&A interview. Plus, see more of Jenkins's photos in an exclusive online gallery.

This is not the Himalayas, but Yellowstone is still wild. Yes, land managers have monkeyed with the variables, but solid science is finally ascendent. Many citizens will never come here, yet they care enough to fight for such places. Which, for most of us, starts with sending a check to the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council or Audubon or any one of the hundreds of groups that defend wilderness, and ends with radically reducing our carbon footprints.

Hiking into the timbered Plateau Creek valley, I relearn what I knew as a boy: that wilderness is not a mythical place, nor a region of virginal exquisiteness as the Transcendentalists would have us believe. Rather, it is real, ecologically complex, necessarily human-managed geography where biodiversity matters more than money. Wilderness is in our backyard, and with the healing influence of minimal interference, it will endure. Gaillard and I knock off miles faster than we expected and surprise ourselves by reaching camp at 2 p.m. In an hour, we have the tent up and a pile of wood. This is our fourth day of walking, as directly as we could, and we still haven’t reached the most remote spot in the Lower 48. But we’re close.

Gaillard looks at his watch, at the sky, then at me. We’re beat. We have less than four hours of daylight. I nod.

We quickly shove food, water, headlamps, GPS, and jackets in hip packs and strike out due north along the Two Ocean Plateau. A moose has broken trail for the first mile.

After crossing the plateau, we have to regain it again to reach the most remote spot. On a mission, we proceed with exuberance, and our muscles respond. On the northern aspects, we plunge up to our knees through crust. When the trail curls around to southern aspects, the track melts to a soft pine needle path and we practically trot.

According to my custom map, we should enter a mile-long clearing with two ponds. We hit it dead on. Gaillard is charging ahead; I’m looking at the map and the GPS, shouting “go north of the ponds,” then, “Okay, go straight.” Gaillard kneels to examine tracks. “Pine marten,” he says.

Passing the last landmark, a pond half-skimmed with ice, we discover antlers sticking out of the water. Perhaps the elk died last winter. Perhaps a grizzly ate the carcass. No matter, whatever happened, it was as it should be. The antlers feel like some kind of symbol, the earth’s wishbone, a talisman.

Beyond the pond, using the GPS, we walk precisely to the most remote place. The middle of nowhere. As wild as wild gets in the Lower 48. A place that may become wilder in the next century.

We stop, stand still, and listen.

Sky. Forest. Snow. Silence.

The birds. The unseen insects and animals all around us. And hope.

Mark Jenkins’ s latest book is A Man’s Life: Dispatches from Dangerous Places.

Subscribe to Backpacker magazine
Sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter

PRINT THIS PAGE EMAIL THIS PAGE RSS FEED

Your rating:

Reader Rating: -

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Digg Delicious Yahoo Facebook Reddit StumbleUpon Google Newsvine Facebook Twitter

READERS COMMENTS

Well said, J Miller.
I'm both a backpacker and a hunter and I find it amusing to an extent on the back and forth jabs.

Could this article have anymore stereotypes about hunters?
When the suburban hiker/backpacker finally ponies up the money and supports wildlife like hunters do THEN they can grip.
Hunters and Ranchers are the true environmentalists.
Posted: Dec 26, 2008 C Miller

"Remote" isn't just being the farthest from a road or human habitation. I did a survey on "Summit Post.com" and the two places that won the "remote" award were not even close to Yellowstone National Park. Number one on climbers and backpackers list was the Picket Range in North Cascade National Park. Specifically Mt Luna in the heart of the range. Number two was in Canyonlands National Monument. What both sites have in common is a lack of humans. Getting to either of the two locations takes time and inflicts its share of pain on he who ventures there. Although both places offer very different environments they hold in common a real threat of danger reaching them. Reaching the Pickets requires bushwacking, river crossings, glacier travel, ice climbing and rock climbing skills in a weather environment which can go from sunny 80 degree temps to snowing and 35 degrees within two hours.
Canyonlands is approached mainly by river running the Green and Colorado River System. Then backpacking up canyons with little water and either extreme high temperatures over 100 degrees or cold temps in the 30's.
No! Yellowstone may have the farthest point to hike to from civilization, but it "taint" the most remote spot in the Lower 48!!!!!!!!
Posted: Nov 14, 2008 Larry L. Murphy

Wonderful article. The feeling of being at the most remote spot in the lower 48 must truly be inspirational. However, the discussion along the trek about the "nature" of "wilderness" is what makes the article so noteworthy. I think what we're dealing with here (and I find this every time I discuss "wilderness" with anyone) is conservation vs. preservation, and the lines that blur between the two and also between conservation and unchecked overuse/abuse. What a catch-22 we are all in as lovers of the wild. I am unquestionably guilty of wanting the entire length of my hike to myself...therefore, I cannot scold others for their desires to enjoy the land in their own way. For me, it comes down to a question of sustainability and respect for nature, however you choose to enjoy it...and as always, keeping the over-indulging characteristics of our society in check. Shame on anyone who would hunt an animal simply for a wall mount. To leave an animal to rot while taking home its rack is as bad as slaughtering a cow to mount the hooves. And shame too, on anyone who scolds a man who responsibly hunts and eats what he kills.

Everyone has their own sense of "wilderness"...its up to all of us to realize that there is nothing stopping us from completely destroying it except ourselves.
Posted: Nov 10, 2008 D. Conoley

You might want to thank those outfitters and "wranglers" you demonize in the backcountry for paying for the conservation of the land they love more than life.. Sure there are a few bad apples but i've met a bad apple or too with a high tech backpack as well... One trip into a place you have never been and you are an expert on the subject. Spend three years there and tell me what you learn.. You might find yourself insignifigant and lonely.. That's how anyone feels back there.. Be carefull who you judge.. You are no different than those "dudes".. They are searching for adventure same as you except they just happen not to be walking.. Build yourself a "walking" trail if you don't want to get muddy next time..
Posted: Nov 08, 2008 J Miller