The 1988 Gates Park Fire, along the North Fork of the Sun River in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, provided an opportunity to explore fire effects on wilderness visitor choices. Recreation visitors along the North and South Fork drainages were interviewed to assess the effects of 1988 fires on their 1989 visits. The Gates Park fire had relatively little impact on the choice to visit the North Fork or the South Fork. Visitors placed more importance on remoteness and naturalness in selecting trails and campsites than on the effects of the fires. The fire effects apparently are not seen as an unnatural phenomenon by most visitors.