Jedediah Smith Wilderness

In Wyoming, 15 wilderness areas span three million acres of forest.

That includes the Jedediah Smith to the west of Grand Teton, and the Gros Ventre to the east.

Roadless areas often serve as buffers to enter the federally designated wilderness areas.

Without the rule, more roads could be built to improve access to these areas for hikers, but Mergliano says that's not the point of wilderness.

Wilderness should be an environment where we are consciously trying to provide the sense of timelessness, where you have the ability to go at your own pace.

Former wilderness ranger Peggy DePasquale runs a program to monitor access to solitude, since it's one of the core tenets protected in the law.

On a hike to tally numbers of hikers in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness near Teton Pass, she says-

You know, some people feel like solitude truly means not seeing a single person when you're out there.

Former wilderness ranger Peggy Davis-Galley runs a program to monitor access to solitude, since it's one of the core tenets protected in the law.

On a hike to tally numbers of hikers in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness near Teton Pass, she says,

You know, some people feel like solitude truly means not seeing a single person when you're out there.

And within wilderness, we... manage for a broad spectrum of solitude.