Big Muddy Badlands and Castle Butte

A 55km Glacial Meltwater Valley Of Eroded Buttes And Coulees On The Montana Border; Castle Butte Stands About 60 Metres Above The Valley Floor, And The Valley Carried The Outlaw Trail North From The United States · Bengough, Saskatchewan

Southern Saskatchewan is supposed to be flat, and then the ground opens into the Big Muddy - a valley about fifty-five kilometres long and two kilometres wide, cut by glacial meltwater and eroded since into buttes, coulees and sandstone outcrops the colour of rust. CASTLE BUTTE stands roughly sixty metres above the valley floor and is visible for a very long way, which is exactly why it mattered: this valley was the northern end of the OUTLAW TRAIL, a route running up from Montana that horse thieves and rustlers used, and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch is said to have kept a station here. Sitting Bull and several thousand Lakota crossed into this country after the Little Bighorn and stayed for years. Older still are the effigies and ceremonial stone arrangements on the ridges above, left by Indigenous peoples long before any of that. Most of the valley is private ranchland, and the way to see it properly is the guided tour that runs out of Coronach.

Big Muddy Valley, near Bengough and Coronach, southern Saskatchewan, Bengough, Saskatchewan, Canada

THERE IS NO GATE AND NO ADMISSION - the Big Muddy is a valley, and CASTLE BUTTE SITS BESIDE A PUBLIC GRID ROAD and can be visited free at any time. WHAT IS SEASONAL AND ORGANISED IS THE GUIDED TOUR: a half-day or full-day trip has run out of CORONACH IN THE SUMMER SEASON, roughly JUNE TO EARLY SEPTEMBER, by advance booking, and IT IS THE ONLY LEGITIMATE WAY TO SEE THE OUTLAW CAVES, THE EFFIGIES AND THE RIDGE SITES, because almost all of that is on PRIVATE RANCHLAND. Do not attempt those without the tour. THE ROADS ARE THE OTHER CONSTRAINT: the valley is reached on gravel and dirt grid roads that become IMPASSABLE GUMBO WHEN WET - do not drive them after rain in any vehicle. Confirm the tour is operating this season before planning around it; it is a small local operation.

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