Thunder Basin National Grassland
Thunder Basin National Grassland, Gillette, WY
Gillette, WY
A sweeping ocean of short-grass prairie under enormous skies, where pronghorn drift across the horizon and thunderheads build all afternoon.
Thunder Basin National Grassland is a vast sweep of rolling short-grass prairie in the Powder River Basin of northeast Wyoming, set between the pine-clad Black Hills and the distant Bighorn Mountains. It is a landscape of enormous horizons, open sky, and quiet, where the eye can travel for miles across grass and sage.
The name captures the country perfectly, for on summer afternoons towering thunderheads build over the plains and roll across the basin with lightning and sudden rain. Home to pronghorn, prairie dogs, and soaring raptors, and shaped by ranching and energy alike, Thunder Basin offers the increasingly rare experience of true prairie space.
What Guests Love
- Enormous, uninterrupted views across rolling short-grass prairie
- Pronghorn, prairie dogs, raptors, and other classic plains wildlife
- The huge skies and dramatic summer thunderstorms that give it its name
- A sense of solitude and space rare even in the wide-open West
Worth Knowing
- This is a scattered, checkerboard grassland mixed with private and other lands, so know where public access is allowed
- There are few services and long distances, so carry water, fuel, and a map
- Roads are often gravel or dirt and can turn to slick mud when wet
- Watch the sky, as the afternoon storms that name the basin can be sudden and severe
Details
Gillette, WY
Learn about Thunder Basin National Grassland
A sea of grass
Thunder Basin protects a large expanse of northern mixed and short-grass prairie, the kind of grassland that once stretched unbroken across the heart of the continent. Here it rolls in long swells of grass and sagebrush, broken by low buttes, dry washes, and scattered badlands.
The grassland is not a single solid block but a scattered, checkerboard mix of public land with private and other holdings, so visitors need to know where access is allowed. Within it, though, lie huge stretches of open country that give a genuine sense of the old plains.
Wildlife of the plains
The grassland is rich in classic plains wildlife. Pronghorn, the fastest land animals in North America, drift across the horizon in herds, and prairie dog colonies dot the flats, their towns supporting hawks, eagles, badgers, and burrowing owls. It is also important habitat for grassland birds and other species that depend on open prairie.
This is one of the best places in Wyoming to see the ecology of the plains at work, where predators and prey, grazers and grasses, are woven together across the wide land. Dawn and dusk are the best times to watch the country come alive with movement.
Storms, skies, and solitude
Thunder Basin earns its name from the weather. On summer afternoons the heat and moisture build into towering thunderheads that march across the basin trailing curtains of rain and lightning, a spectacle to watch from a safe distance across the open country.
The same openness brings extraordinary skies at all times, from sunrises that flood the grass with gold to some of the darkest night skies in the state, thick with stars. For travelers seeking solitude and space, the basin offers a stillness and scale hard to find elsewhere.
History, land, and visiting
This country was long the domain of Plains tribes, including the Lakota and Cheyenne, who followed the great bison herds across it, and later it became ranching and, in modern times, energy country, with coal and other resources drawn from the Powder River Basin. Those layers coexist across the grassland today.
Gillette is the main gateway, and from there gravel and dirt roads lead out into the basin, though services are few and distances long. Come prepared and mind the weather and access rules, and Thunder Basin rewards you with one of the last great expanses of open prairie in the West.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Gillette
Gillette
Gateway town
The energy-and-ranching hub of northeast Wyoming, with a rockpile museum and services.
Devils Tower National Monument
About 60 miles northeast
The country's first national monument, a sacred stone tower rising above the pines.
Black Hills
To the east
The forested island range straddling the Wyoming and South Dakota line, sacred to Plains tribes.