Bighorn National Forest

The Bighorns are not part of the main chain of the Rocky Mountains. They rise as a separate island of high country in north-central Wyoming, lifted up over the plains, which is why they feel so abrupt and so grand when you approach from the flats around Ten Sleep. At their heart is the Cloud Peak Wilderness, a rugged core of granite peaks, cirques, and hundreds of small lakes, crowned by 13,167-foot Cloud Peak, the highest point in the range.

The land was protected early. In 1897 the federal government set it aside as the Bighorn Forest Reserve, making it one of the first forest reserves in the nation, born in the same wave of conservation that created the national forest system. That long protection is part of why the range stays so intact today, a working landscape of grazing, logging, and recreation that still holds real wilderness at its center.

Long before the forest had a name on any map, the mountains were and remain deeply meaningful to Native peoples of the northern plains, including the Crow, and the range still holds sites and stories sacred to them. Traveling here means moving through a landscape that has mattered to people for a very long time.

The gateway from the west is Ten Sleep Canyon, a deep cut of layered limestone and dolomite that the highway threads on its way up. The canyon walls are tall, pale, and pocketed, and they have made this one of the most celebrated rock-climbing destinations in the country, with hundreds of routes drawing climbers from around the world to grip that steep gray stone. Even if you never leave the car, the drive up the canyon is a show, with the creek tumbling below and the cliffs closing in overhead.

The road itself is US Highway 16, known here as the Cloud Peak Skyway. It climbs from Ten Sleep up through the canyon, over Powder River Pass at nearly 9,700 feet, and down the far side to the old cow town of Buffalo, roughly forty-five miles of steady, scenic driving. Along the way there are pull-offs and overlooks where the whole range opens up, and on a clear day you can pick out Cloud Peak itself standing above the wilderness.

The name Ten Sleep comes from the way Plains tribes measured distance in days of travel, or sleeps. This spot sat about ten sleeps, ten nights on the trail, from a large camp on the Platte River to the south and roughly the same from another camp to the north, a midway marker on an old route between them. The name is a small reminder that people have been crossing this country on foot and horseback for centuries.

Up on the plateau the forest opens into meadows and lakes. Meadowlark Lake is the best known, a blue mountain reservoir ringed by pines just off the byway, popular for fishing, small boats and paddleboards, and easygoing camping right at altitude. Countless smaller lakes and streams lace the high country, and the fishing for trout is a big part of why people keep coming back.

For those who want to walk, trailheads lead off the highway into the forest and toward the Cloud Peak Wilderness, from short strolls to lakes and waterfalls to multi-day backpacking trips deep into the granite basins. It is a place where you can tailor the effort to the day, an hour of easy wandering or a serious mountain trek, and either way find water, rock, and long views.

The forest changes hard with the calendar. Summer is short, green, and glorious, with wildflowers in the meadows and cool nights. Fall brings gold to the aspens and elk bugling in the timber. Winter buries the high road and turns the range over to snowmobiles and cross-country skis, with a small ski hill near Meadowlark, and spring comes late, with snow on the peaks well into the warm months.

Ten Sleep sits right at the western doorstep of the forest, so a stay here puts you minutes from the canyon and the start of the climb. The simplest first outing is just to drive up the Cloud Peak Skyway, stopping at the overlooks, poking into the canyon, and turning around whenever you like, or continuing all the way over the pass to Buffalo and back for a full-day loop through the mountains.

Plan for a real mountain trip even on a warm day. Bring layers, water, snacks, and a full tank, because once you leave town there are no stores and little to no cell signal. Give the forest more time than you think you need, since the overlooks, the lake, and a short walk to moving water have a way of stretching an afternoon. It is the kind of place that rewards slowing down, a huge, quiet range rising straight out of the plains for anyone willing to point the car uphill.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.