Lonesome Highway — Pryor Mountains Wild Horse Range to Crooked Creek via Bighorn River Benchlands

The Pryor Mountains straddle the Montana-Wyoming line southeast of Billings, and the Bureau of Land Management road system through the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range is some of the most desolate, geologically spectacular driving in the Northern Rockies. The main route climbs from the Bighorn River benchlands near Lovell, Wyoming, up the limestone karst plateau via Big Pryor Mountain Road — passing through juniper scrub and open sage before the terrain opens up on the high plateau where the wild mustangs roam freely. The horses are descendants of colonial Spanish stock, and on a good day you’ll spot a band near the Burnt Timber Ridge area or along the road to the Devil Canyon Overlook, which drops sheer into the Bighorn Canyon below. Crooked Creek on the north end of the range provides a rough but rewarding exit toward Pryor, Montana.

This is high-clearance 4WD territory on the plateau — clay soils turn to axle-grabbing mud in wet weather and the limestone bedrock sections are unforgiving on tires. Stick to dry conditions, July through September. No permits required, but this is remote BLM land with zero services — fuel in Lovell, Wyoming before heading up and carry two days of water minimum. Cell service is nonexistent on the plateau. Dispersed camping is allowed throughout the BLM sections. The combination of wild horses, canyon geology, and near-total solitude makes this one of the genuinely special drives in the Northern Rockies.