I have crossed the Big Horn Mountains 7 times in my life. Mostly on Hwy 14/14a but once on Hwy 16. I have always loved the scenic twisty roads that crossed the mountains. I have never stayed in the Big Horns, we were always on our way to somewhere. Fortunately that changed with our 10 day stay in the Big Horns.
We camped on Big Horn Forest land off of forest road 25 also called Canyon Creek Road. We found an incredible site with a beautiful mountain view that was also protected from the wind. We were located at 9200 feet, just past the Powder River Pass. It took a couple of days to adjust to the altitude but fortunately we had just spent a week at 6000 feet in the Black Hill so that help us adjust. We were also just a mile or so from the Leigh Creek RV dump station that has 3 lanes of dump stations and drinking water. The one downside of this location was the lack of cell service. There was a spot 6 miles away that you could get 1 bar of Verizon otherwise you had to drive 30 minutes to the west to Ten Sleep or 40 miles to the east to Buffalo to get signal.
We were amazed by the amount of boondocking options in the Big Horns. There were campers setup EVERYWHERE. I was really surprised by the "roads" that people were willing to take there campers down. There were many campers setup in locations that I wouldn't feel comfortable taking my truck to let alone pulling my camper. I guess I'm just a chicken.
The place pretty much turned into a ghost town during the week. It's clear there are a lot of "locals" that come to the mountains to get away from the heat and play on the week-ends.
A few highlights of our stay. First we rented a side-by-side for 2 days and were able to explore the many ATV trails in the area. The ATV trail system is vast and we only were able to touch the tip of the iceberg of the trail system. But WOW, what a great experience. We were able to see the mountains in a way you just don't get by driving by on the hiway. This experience really makes us consider getting a 4 wheeler and coming here for the summer. The 2nd highlight was meeting up with friends Aaron and Jane along with their family. They have been coming up here for years and we were fortunate to have a slight schedule over-lap allowing us to connect for a couple of evenings. What a great time and their family is awesome. The 3rd highlight was our visit the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. We have been past this many times but were never in a position to stop. While it was a 2 hour drive from our campsite we decided to make it happen while we were in the area. Unfortunately due to COVID the museum /visitor center were closed and while they had a web based audio tour of the various sites we couldn't get it to work for us. That really did limit the enjoyment of our visit but were were glad to finally see this place.
More Big Horn Photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/PMVfjEVdrGg3jJae7
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