Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Montana, United States
Bighorn Canyon was the main destination for this short road
trip. I recently read in some Montana
based magazine that May is a good month for hiking there because it can get
very hot during the summer months because of its relatively low elevation (like
around 4,000 feet). Looking at some pictures of the park, it occurred to me
that in all my travels around the West I hadn’t been there. I supposed technically I crossed through a
piece of the park unit on the road between Lovell and Sheridan once or twice
and may have been to the dam at the northern side of the park. I most
definitely have not driven north from Lovell into the main park unit, though.
Bighorn Canyon is considered one of the more scenic canyons
in the West, a landscape a little different from most of Montana’s mountains
and plains scenery somewhat more typical of the Canyon Country in Utah and adjacent
states. The Bighorn River cuts through a
big uplift of the arc of the Bighorn Mountains and Pryor Mountains, the Pryor’s
being the lower, smaller range to the northwest.
I read about the geology of it all in the
visitor’s center, but it’s not one of my subjects of study so I quickly forget
the facts and figures about the world of rocks.
Like many places in the West, where there’s a canyon with a river
flowing through it, there’s an opportunity to build a dam for irrigation and
electric generation. The Yellowtail Dam in Montana is about 500 feet high and
backs up a lake through the canyon many miles upstream into Wyoming. The land along Bighorn Lake is part of the national
park system but has national recreation area rather than national park status
because of the human imprint caused by the dam.
Like Lake Powell in Utah in the Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area, the primary focus of tourism in Bighorn Canyon is boating on
the lake. And I’m sure the public summer
boat tours through the canyon are spectacularly scenic too, but in mid-May
things are still pretty deserted. I
guess that’s another advantage of going to Bighorn Canyon in May; you can have
the place virtually to yourself.
And it’s
true – most of the commercial facilities at the Horseshoe Bend Marina village
were closed, and on every trail I hiked I was literally the only person on
it. At the Devil Canyon Overlook, the only
canyon overlook with a parking lot at the rim that doesn’t require a bit of a
stroll, a single car was pulling out just as I arrived.
As far as hikes go, those in Bighorn Canyon are quite mild
and relatively tame. The longest one I
did named Lower Layout Creek to a spectacular viewpoint above the canyon and
lake was less than five miles roundtrip with only mile ups and downs. The State
Line, Sullivan’s Knob, and Lockhart Ranch trails were also all around a mile or
less. The lack of signage and parking lots at the trailheads, though, suggests
they’re not very popular even during higher season.
One of Bighorn Canyon’s draws is the wild mustangs of the
Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range that ranges across several federal land
management jurisdictions in the area.
The horses are believed to descend from a heard that was introduced by
the Spaniards, possibly traded to Indian tribes, that escaped.
While not truly native wildlife, they’re
considered natural to the ecosystem having occupied the land for over 400
years. They’re apparently not easy to
spot, though. I managed to see only one, a not very wild looking horse grazing
alongside the road, nothing as exciting as the stallions battling it out for
mating rights displayed on brochures for the place.
I drove the 20-plus miles north from Lovell, Wyoming twice to
get views of the canyon at different times of day and in different light. While I didn’t see many horses in the Wild
Horse Range, I did encounter plenty of the canyon’s namesake Bighorn
Sheep. They’re not even bashful; the
ones I saw were all close to the road that I came across while driving.
On my way through the park on my second day, I started
noticing a lot of poop on the road and then encountered a serious cow jam, a
large herd of cattle being moved along the road by about 8 or 10 cowboys on
horseback. At first I was annoyed by the
delay keeping me from getting to the next hiking trail I had on my
itinerary.
But then I suddenly realized,
“This is fantastic – a real live Montana cattle drive with authentic cowboys
and all!” I slowly followed a couple other vehicles through the obstacle course
of moving cattle and calves on the road to vantage points where I could stay
ahead of them for good pictures until I got to my trailhead and watched it all
pass. They were moving the herds from
winter range in the lower elevations around Lovell, Wyoming to summer grazing
areas in the Pryor Mountains in southern Montana. I’ve seen cowboys and small
herds of cattle elsewhere, but this is probably the first time in all my years
in the West that I’ve seen an authentic cattle drive. Now that’s what I call
the real West!
I’d highly recommend a detour into Bighorn Canyon for anyone
doing a trip in this part of the country or on the way to Yellowstone and Grand
Teton National Parks.
2025-05-22