Bighorn Canyon - WY/MT border -

E

El and Bill

New member
Joined
Nov 8, 2003
Messages
3,200
Reaction score
0
C Dory Year
2000
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
Hull Identification Number
Sold in 2012
Vessel Name
Halcyon
Has anyone boated the Bighorn Canyon? We've camped there and it looked like a great boating experience. If you've launched there, where is the best ramp?
 
Have not boated there, but looking at my mapsourse topo maps on computer there is a boat launch, campground and Marina located at a great spot to access the canyon part of Bighorn Lake. Approximately 2 miles east past Lovell, Wy on Alt HY 14 take Highway 37 North. It dead-ends at the campground/marina in about 12 miles.

Hope this helps,

Jay
 
That was the only boat launch and campground I could find on the WY side. Was it the one you camped at before? Noticed there are two more on the MT side, but think the WY one would be the most convenient especially if coming from the south or west such as Yellowstone or Jackson Lake.

We checked the south area out for access points in the spring of 2004 and found it to much just desert and rock for us, though have been told the canyon part is awesome.

Jay
 
Thanks, Jay. Yes, that's the campground where we stayed. We'll head over there to the marina you suggest right after leaving Yellowstone, so probably sometime in last half of June. It's the deepest canyon in the northern Rockies - a thousand foot slice down into the Madison Limestone.

Have you guys been on Ft Peck Res.? We paddled it 24 years ago in a double kayak and enjoyed the lake out on the plains - lots of plains elk. Then maybe continue east (on trailer) to Lake Sakakawea and maybe Lake Oahe. Have you or other brats been over that way?
 
No we haven't been been to the Ft Peck Res., but sure enjoyed the Missouri River Break area just upstream. Have heard Yellowstone John tell some good stories of his C-Dory experiences on the Ft Peck Res. and we too would like to cruise it in the future.

Hope to hear more about this years travel plans from you in person during your Western Wyoming passage. Also Casey mentioned they might make Jackson and Yellowstone Lakes this spring. Would be great to have another mini gathering at either lake.

Jay
 
El & Bill - By circumstances related to my career as an educator, I possess some degree of knowledge of Big Horn Lake boating. I had begun teaching in 1960 in Hardin, the county seat of Big Horn County. Hardin is off the Crow Indian Reservation but for the most part surrounded by the reservation itself. In 1958 I floated (rafted) through the canyon, a long winding trip through many rapids. The Big Horn River then was a somewhat silt lalden river home to catfish and sauger, but several pristine trout streams flowing from canyons of the Big Horn Mountains and from the Dry Head flowed into it.

Big Horn Dam (first called Yellowtail Dam after a famous Crow tribal leader) broke ground in 1961 at the mouth of the Big Horn Canyon. Over 550 feet high, this concrete gravity arch dam spans the narrowest part of the canyon at its mouth close to Fort C.F. Smith, site of several Sioux Indian battles along the Bozeman Trail. (located 50 miles from present day Hardin)

A town named after the fort emerged to support the building of the dam, including an elementary school for 500 hundred students (K-8) belonging to construction related families. In 1966- 1969 I served as the principal of the school, and of course had a very close relationship with workers and officials. And I had a most unique boating (canoeing adventure) on Big Horn Lake because of that.

Once the dam was completed, it of course took some time for the lake to fill up. When the lake was about 3/4 filled, the Bureau of Reclamation
built a ramp and catwalk on the upstream side and slung in a few navy surplus steel boats to help secure floating debris from the lake itself. The dam was dedicated in 1968.

One Saturday I talked some of the dam workers to sling my seventeen foot Alumacraft canoe along with small Merc outboard over the dam face to the water below. One of the workers went along as crew, and we went up the lake to Black Canyon and up the canyon to where the stream was meeting the lake, reversed our route and turned up lake again and went to Big Bull Elk canyon and then returned back to the dam.

That was quite a trip and quite unofficial of course, and I believe my friend and I were probably the first recreational boaters on the lake. But during theat era things were a little more relaxed than today.

Once the dam filled up, the Big Horn river turned into a world class trout stream, with constant temperature water, which runs about a 100 miles to the Yellowstone River. The Big Horn never freezes during the winter.
Enough of that history.

Three (3) launch sites were created on the lake, one just above the dam, one where the Big Horn backs up into Wyoming, and the other called Barry's Landing just inside the Montana border The first and second sites have amenities. Barry's landing has a good launch site and parking for trailers and a beautiful camping area nearby. All sites are reached by all weaher highways.

I have made the run with both my old and newer Far West II. Since from top to bottom is a run of 80 miles, there is a variety of scenery, from sheer rock walls to timbered ridges . The upper launch site is subject to lake levels and best accessed in the early summer. There are few protected areas to drop anchor during the night. A C-Dory can handle any weather with ease.

Go on lne for more specifics on the launch sites.

Take care. John
 
Thanks for sharing your history and relationship with the Big Horn, John. We look forward to boating on 'your' lake, and your description has made the anticipation even greater for us. Of course, the geology of the canyon is also of great interest. I first saw the canyon in 1958, on a field trip while at the Univ. of Wyoming, and have been intrigued by it ever since.
 
Bill, I'm dropping the Far West II into its slip on May 21. If you want to do Big Horn Canyon before (or after) I'll join you. Please advise when your plans firm up. John
 
Rough estimate - About June 18 arrive in Yellowstone from Jackson Lake and, before that, Lake Powell. Maybe head over to Big Horn around June 25?? Would that be a good date (roughly) for you? Look forward to visiting again with you.
 
June 25 would be a good date to head to Big Horn Lake - about 140 miles from the marina. The forecast is for below average run off from the Big Horn Basin. We can monitor all the ramp sites in the next two months.
Going to the lower end (the dam area) is a much longer haul swinging around Cody to Billings and Hardin and then back to Fort Smith.
John
 
Sorry that I am going to miss you guys on this part of our trip--but you have given me some great ideas for the "post Yellowstone" part of the grandkids Tour of the National Parks and waters of the West (only boats will probably be inflatales and inflatable Hobie Kayak--but still on the water! We will probably be up that way a couple of weeks later.
 
Back
Top