[2] Traversed by the Appalachian Trail, the wilderness is rugged and steep with contrasting habitats containing dry table mountain pine on the southwest ridges and sugar maples, white oaks, and hemlock in wetter drainages.

The wilderness is about 8 miles southwest of New Castle, Virginia and extends into Craig, Roanoke, and Montgomery Counties.

[2] An older part of the Appalachian Trail, now abandoned, stretches a few miles along the midslope of Brush Mountain.

[2] Audie Murphy, a 2nd world war hero, died in a plane crash on Brush Mountain in 1971.

The crash site, near the Appalachian Trail on the crest of Brush Mountain, is marked by a stone monument erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.