Yes, really. All those campgrounds and the roads around them are outside the wilderness boundary. Not that the bears care much about boundary lines, but your 4x4 statement caught my eye. I have hiked in a fair number of wilderness areas, and one thing they are more than clear about is no motorized vehicles allowed. The USFS was rebuilding a bridge over the SF Flathead when we floated through in 2018, and the crew told us that every piece came in via pack train of horses and mules. Emergencies are the only exception I know of. During a forest fire in about 2016, the USFS flew hikers and packrafters who could have become trapped out by helicopter.
The Wilderness Act (“Act”) establishes a National Wilderness Preservation System composed of designated “wilderness areas” that are administered in such a manner “as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness.” 16 U.S.C. § 1131(a). Subject to certain exceptions, the Act bans commercial enterprises, permanent roads, motorized vehicles and equipment, temporary roads, structures, and installations within any wilderness area.” Id. § 1133(c). While the Act generally precludes any development in designated wilderness areas, “existing private rights” are exempt from the ban on commercial activities and access is assured for those with “valid occupancies.” So, there might be a camp, an access road, or an airstrip in a wilderness if the development/inholding predated wilderness designation. Special Use Authorizations are also available, in limited circumstances.
Here's the definition of wilderness at 16 U.S.C. § 1131(c):
"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this chapter an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value."
I've always liked the "untrammeled by man" phrase. Here's a nice essay on the origin and context of that phrase:
.. all good, preferring passion over indifference
