Wilderness Study Areas

Adobe Town WSA

Adobe Town has top tier National Park level scenery and geology, but hardly anybody knows about it. Even in Wyoming, I only know a few people who have been to this state treasure. I’ve been lucky enough to go out there a few times. The odds that it is just you and some wild horses walking the badlands are high, so plan accordingly.

This is the biggest BLM WSA in the state (Palisades WSA on Forest Service land is bigger). It is a scoop taken out of the desert, with a badland rim on its west side, multi-hued like so much ice cream (mostly vanilla bean). If you clamber down this rim, which is challenging, you will go through distinct geological strata. Right near the top you will find highly eroded sandstone, that looks, for all the world, like a coral reef with the water drained out. The reef stratum is around 6,950 feet and is formed by rounded, rapidly weathering sandstone. Below that you cross into badlands and drop through them for 400 feet. Hoodoos abound. Looking up from the sandy plain at the bottom, the rim is beautiful and daunting.

Alkali Basin/East Sand Dunes WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Alkali Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Alkali Creek WSA — official BLM page; located about 25 miles west of Worland in Washakie and Big Horn counties, at the transition between the Bighorn Basin floor and the Big Horn Mountain foothills

Alkali Draw WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Bennett Mountain WSA

Bennett Mountain is a low, sprawling massif standing guard over Seminoe Reservoir. The North Platte River has been backed up to make this reservoir and it can be a good spot to fish or ice skate. The area abuts the Red Desert and has the feeling of in-betweenness—part desert, part plains and mountains.

The mountain is traversed by steep declivities, with granite cliffs and outcrops cutting down into a thin limestone and sandstone layer that peeks out of the south side of the mountain. These limestone fins are pretty cool to explore, steep, and covered in mountain mahogany.

Bighorn Tack-On WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Bighorn Tack-On WSA — official BLM page; this is a narrow strip bordering Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, spanning the MT/WY line

Bobcat Draw Badlands WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Buffalo Hump WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Buffalo Hump WSA — official BLM page; access from Farson via Highway 191 south then east on the Fifteen Mile Knoll Cutoff Road

Cedar Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Cedar Mountain WSA — official BLM page with access directions; southern approach via Black Mountain Road (Co Rd 172) and Cowboy Springs Road

Copper Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Devil's Playground WSA

If a mountain of badlands with biblically old junipers trips your trigger then Devil’s Playground may be your favorite WSA. It looks big from the highway, but it is bigger than it looks. As you hike up the thing, the badlands will be revealed as more extensive than they seemed from your car seat.

Look closely at the ground. Rockhounds will think they shed their mortal bodies and flew off to where the good rocks go when they die. The rocks are amazing, even for people that don’t like rocks. This area is near tiger chert deposits, which were favored by native peoples for various tools. Tiger chert only occurs in this region of the world, yet artifacts have been found throughout the West. So, it must have been widely traded, or just carried around on long rambles.

Dubois Badlands WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Encampment River Canyon WSA

The Encampment river is the perfect size mountain river, to my eyes. You would think twice before wading across it, since you probably would need to swim a few strokes. But you can cast a line from one bank to the other without much effort.

The river’s mother is the Sierra Madre mountains. The Encampment joins the North Platte River near Riverside, Wyoming.

Riverside and Encampment are right next to one another, so one wonders why the towns don’t join like the rivers they neighbor. Turns out they were platted separately and then somebody found a big chunk of copper near Encampment. Soon thereafter Encampment was known as the Pittsburg of the West. Several million dollars of copper came down out of the Madre on the longest aerial tramway in the world (16 miles). Riverside stayed separate, during this boom (not sure exactly why, but since they were platted separately, folks would have had to agree to conjoin them). The bust came after eleven years. Neither town has since grown enough to subsume the other.

Ferris Mountains WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Fortification Creek WSA

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  • BLM — Fortification Creek WSA — official BLM page; no direct public road access, a 9-mile foot/horse route through BLM and state land off Fortification Road is the way in. Looks tricky.

Gardner Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Gardner Mountain WSA — official BLM page; access is via the Gardner Mountain Trail from I-90 exit 254 (Kaycee), about 7 miles on foot to the WSA boundary

High Lakes WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Honeycomb Buttes WSA

For the lover of badlands, this is a must visit location. From the south, rough two tracks end at 200 foot tall mounds of multi-hued clay that cover over 60 square miles. Climb to the top of a mound and look out to the south. This is the largest chunk of the United States without a fence. Enjoy that, while it lasts. Stars, lizards, cactus, and some damn beautiful dirt.

Honeycombs WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Honeycombs WSA — official BLM page; 16 miles southeast of Worland; eastern approach via US 16 east then south on Blue Bank Road (BLM Road 1411)

Lake Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

McCullough Peaks WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — McCullough Peaks WSA — official BLM page; southern access via McCullough Peaks Road #1212 off US 14/16/20 about 5 miles east of Cody

Medicine Lodge WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Medicine Lodge WSA — official BLM page; access from Hyattville via Cold Springs Road, then County Road 52 (Dry Medicine Lodge Creek Road) toward the Bighorn National Forest boundary

North Fork Powder River WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Oregon Buttes WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Oregon Buttes WSA — official BLM page; the buttes rise to 8,612 ft out of the Red Desert’s northwestern edge, two-track roads ring the boundary

Owl Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Owl Creek WSA — official BLM page; three units on the ridge dividing Rock Creek and the South Fork of Owl Creek, adjacent to the Washakie Wilderness in Hot Springs County

Palisades WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Prospect Mountain WSA

Steep-shouldered Prospect Mountain is the Western rampart of the Snowy Range. The Platte River, flowing the tanned, translucent brown of Folger’s coffee most of the year, wraps around its base. The WSA is small, and is dominated by the eponymous peak.

The decision of the Carbon County Wyoming Public Lands Initiative meetings was to marry this WSA to its neighboring wilderness–the Platte River Wilderness. You can read about this here on Western Confluence. This merger makes good sense. The WSA is directly adjacent to the current Wilderness boundary with the Platte as the coffee-colored line between them. Thus, the merger would protect a wondrous stretch of river and grow the jewel of the Snowies that is the Platte River Wilderness.

Pryor Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Pryor Mountain WSA — official BLM page; the WSA spans the MT/WY line on the south-trending slopes of the Pryors; Montana access via Hwy 310 south of Bridger then Pryor Mountain Road

Raymond Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Raymond Mountain WSA — official BLM page; a remote, forested range near the Idaho border in Lincoln County, with unsigned two-track access roads

Red Butte WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Red Butte WSA — official BLM page; northern approach via State Hwy 30 to County Lane 42, then south on Dorsey Creek Road about 13 miles

Red Creek Badlands WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Red Creek Badlands WSA — official BLM page; access via US 191 south from Rock Springs 31 miles to County Road 4-34, then east 6 miles to County Road 4-27

Red Lake WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Red Lake WSA — official BLM page; part of the Killpecker Sand Dunes complex in the Red Desert’s Great Divide Basin

Sand Dunes WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Sand Dunes WSA — official BLM page; take Highway 191 north from Rock Springs 10 miles, then east on County Road 4-17 for 18 miles to reach the WSA

Scab Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Scab Creek WSA — official BLM page; accessed from Boulder via WY 353 and County Road 23-122 to the Scab Creek Recreation Area

Sheep Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Sheep Mountain WSA — official BLM visit page; access via Dorsey Creek Road (BLM Road 1103) off Fifteen Mile Road from Worland, or from Burlington via Hwy 30 and County Lane 42 1/2

Shoal Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

South Pinnacles WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — South Pinnacles WSA — official BLM page; access via Hwy 191 north to County Road 4-17, then east 36 miles to County Road 4-15, which becomes the eastern boundary

Sweetwater Canyon WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Sweetwater Canyon WSA — official BLM page; accessed from the Hudson-Atlantic City Road along the Wind River Range’s southeastern flank

Sweetwater Rocks (Lankin Dome) WSA

“Some rather nice granite domes lie in the Wyoming desert.”

— David Kozak, the American Alpine Journal 1984

I recall driving to Lander from Laramie for the first time and looking off to the east at a long-running chain of rocky hills. It looked like good climbing. As I kept driving, I saw some huge granite domes well off the road that evoked Tuolumne Meadows or Joshua Tree National Park. This area is the Sweetwater Rocks, and if it were closer to humanity climbers would know it well.

Sweetwater Rocks (Miller Springs) WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Sweetwater Rocks (Savage Peak) WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Sweetwater Rocks (Split Rock) WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

Trapper Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Trapper Creek WSA — official BLM page; from Shell take Hwy 14 south and turn onto Trapper Creek Road (Bighorn County road), then 2.7 miles to County Road R43

Twin Buttes WSA

Twin Buttes is right next to the Devil’s Playground WSA. They are both mountains of badlands, but when walking them they feel different. Twin Buttes is more barren–there are fewer juniper groves than on Devil’s Playground.

The summit of Twin Buttes is quite steep. There are two summits actually, go figure…. and each has a crown of cactus. It is a great place to watch the Uintas slowly rise.

Rockhounding is fantastic in this area.

Whiskey Mountain WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!

  • BLM — Whiskey Mountain WSA — official BLM page; accessed from Trail Lake Road near Dubois; this tiny WSA on the north face of Whiskey Mountain hosts one of the largest concentrations of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the US

Whitehorse Creek WSA

I have not visited this location yet. Soon!