Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
National Recreation Area · Fort Smith, Montana
A canyon up to a thousand feet deep on the Bighorn River, flooded in the 1960s behind Yellowtail Dam to make a seventy-mile reservoir running from Montana down into Wyoming. The rock is layered and pale and the water is improbably blue at the bottom of it. There are wild horses in the Pryor Mountains on the western rim, descended from Spanish stock and among the few genuinely wild herds left in the country. Its oddity is that the north and south districts have no road connecting them — the drive between is over two hours.
Fort Smith, Fort Smith, Montana, 59035, United States
Open year round, with reduced winter services and some road closures. THE NORTH AND SOUTH DISTRICTS HAVE NO CONNECTING ROAD — the north is at Fort Smith, Montana, the south at Lovell, Wyoming, and driving between them takes over two hours. An entrance fee applies in the south district only; the north district is currently free. Visitor centres keep seasonal hours. Mandatory aquatic invasive species inspection applies to watercraft, and fishing licences depend on which side of the state line you are on.
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