Best Overlanding Trails in Wyoming
The best overlanding trails in Wyoming span everything from high-alpine forest roads in the Bighorns to red-walled river canyons in the Great Divide Basin — this is a state where the difficulty range is genuinely wide and the crowds are genuinely thin. You’ll find easy BLM two-tracks following wagon ruts that haven’t changed since 1850, and you’ll find mountain routes that close by October and punish unprepared rigs on the way up. What ties it all together is space — Wyoming doesn’t compress the experience. Expect long stretches between services, weather that shifts fast above 9,000 feet, and landscapes that feel like they haven’t been explained to anyone yet. This list covers the terrain from Yellowstone’s backcountry edge down to the Red Desert.
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Thorofare Road — Yellowstone’s Most Remote Backcountry Drive via Bridger-Teton
The Thorofare via Bridger-Teton is the anchor entry for anyone serious about Wyoming backcountry — access to a region that is literally the most remote point in the lower 48. This is expedition-level logistics, not a day trip, and the dirt approaches reflect that. If you're building a rig list and a resupply plan, this is the benchmark.
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Wind River Range Cirque of the Towers Access
The Cirque of the Towers access road is the only expert-rated route in this pool, and it earns that rating honestly — rocky, high-altitude, and ending at 10,400 feet beneath some of the most dramatic granite in North America. Best window is August to September, and there's no margin for mechanical problems at that elevation.
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Commissary Ridge Road
Commissary Ridge is the kind of route that starts benign and gets progressively more committed as elevation builds — an old logging road in the Wyoming Range that transitions from mixed surface to genuinely technical terrain. The late June to September window is tight, and the mixed surface keeps you honest throughout.
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Glacier Ridge Trail — Bighorn National Forest High Road
Glacier Ridge Trail cuts across the spine of the Bighorn National Forest between two major highways, so you can run it point-to-point without backtracking — rare in Wyoming. The route sits high and exposed with views into Cloud Peak Wilderness, and the USFS road network gives you options to extend or bail depending on conditions.
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Kellner Canyon to Tensleep Canyon — Bighorn Mountains East Face Desert Road
Kellner Canyon to Tensleep is an eastern Bighorn face approach that commits you immediately — shale benches and loose sandstone switchbacks before you've had time to second-guess the turn. It's one of the more demanding drives in the region, and the desert-floor-to-alpine transition in a single route is genuinely hard to beat.
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Bridger-Teton Greys River Road
The Greys River Road runs 42 miles through one of Wyoming's most isolated river valleys, tracing a trapper route that sees a fraction of the traffic the Tetons get just west of the divide. The Bridger-Teton wilderness boundary keeps development off the corridor, which means wildlife and solitude at a moderate difficulty level.
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Sunlight Basin Road — Sunlight Creek to Dead Indian Summit via Absoraka Front
Sunlight Basin Road crosses Sunlight Bridge — the highest bridge in Wyoming — and drops into the Clarks Fork drainage with direct Absaroka front views that most visitors to Cody never see. It connects naturally to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, making it a strong anchor for a northeast Wyoming loop.
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Killpecker Sand Dunes Road — Eden Valley to White Mountain Petroglyphs via Great Divide Basin
The Killpecker Sand Dunes road threads through the Great Divide Basin — a hydrological closed system that feels legitimately alien — before reaching White Mountain Petroglyphs, which most Wyoming visitors have never heard of. The combination of active sand dunes, wild horses, and rock art in one corridor is hard to replicate anywhere else in the state.
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Togwotee Pass to Brooks Lake Historic Freight Road
The Togwotee Pass to Brooks Lake freight road starts from one of Wyoming's most dramatic highway passes and gains you access to Brooks Lake with Absaroka wall views that dwarf what you get from the paved approach. It's a high-altitude moderate that rewards the drive with a genuine historical freight context dating to the early 1900s.
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Lonesome Highway — Seminoe Reservoir to Alcova via the Miracle Mile Road
The Lonesome Highway along the Miracle Mile Road through the North Platte's red-walled canyon is one of south-central Wyoming's most overlooked routes — minimal traffic, concentrated geology, and river access that fishing and overland communities both use. It's a practical moderate with a dramatic payoff.
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Longabaugh Trail — Hole-in-the-Wall to Outlaw Cave via Wyoming’s Red Wall Country
The Hole-in-the-Wall to Outlaw Cave route through Wyoming's Red Wall country puts you in the actual landscape where the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang operated — a sandstone notch in a red cliff band that makes the history tangible in a way no museum can. The BLM dirt is accessible at moderate difficulty but remote enough that preparation matters.
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Battle Pass Road — Sierra Madre Divide Between Encampment and Baggs
Battle Pass Road crosses the Sierra Madre at nearly 10,000 feet, connecting a former copper-mining town to the high desert plateau in a route that almost nobody runs compared to more publicized Wyoming mountain roads. The elevation window is narrow — late June to October — and the isolation is real.
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Green River Lakes Road
Green River Lakes Road goes 52 miles into the Wind River wilderness and dead-ends at glacial lakes beneath Squaretop Mountain's near-vertical walls — one of those destinations where the photograph looks fake. The length and dead-end nature mean you're committing to the round trip, so fuel and conditions planning are non-negotiable.
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Birch Creek to Heart Mountain — Shoshone National Forest Absaroka Front Road via Dead Indian Hill
The Birch Creek to Heart Mountain route via Dead Indian Hill puts you on the Absaroka front northeast of Cody with access to one of North America's most geologically strange landforms — a block of ancient limestone sitting on top of younger rock. It's a difficult-rated dirt route through Shoshone National Forest that earns its rating on the ascent.
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Gros Ventre Slide Geological Road
The Gros Ventre Slide road climbs 12 miles to the site of Wyoming's most famous geological disaster — a 1925 landslide that dammed an entire river — and the physical scale of the slide debris is startling even a century later. It's a moderate dirt track accessible from Jackson that most Teton visitors skip entirely.
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Frequently asked questions
When do Wyoming mountain roads typically open after winter?
Higher elevation routes — anything above 8,500 feet in the Bighorns, Wind Rivers, or Absarokas — typically don't open until late June or early July, and some years not until July. Always check with the relevant National Forest or BLM field office before committing to a high-altitude route in spring.
Do I need a high-clearance 4WD vehicle for most of these trails?
For anything rated Moderate or higher, high clearance is a practical requirement — Wyoming dirt roads develop washboards, embedded rock, and mud ruts that sedans can't manage. True 4WD matters most on the Difficult and Expert routes, particularly in the Bighorns and the Cirque of the Towers access.
How far apart are fuel and services on Wyoming backcountry routes?
Gaps of 80–120 miles between fuel stops are common in south-central and western Wyoming, and some routes like the Great Divide Basin roads have no services at all along the corridor. Carry a minimum 2-gallon fuel reserve and plan your fill-ups before leaving any town of consequence.
Are permits required for overlanding in Wyoming's national forests and BLM land?
Most BLM and National Forest roads in Wyoming don't require a permit just to drive, but dispersed camping has stay limits (typically 14 days per site) and some specific areas like the Thorofare require backcountry permits. Check with the managing agency for any route near a wilderness boundary.
What's the biggest weather hazard to plan around in Wyoming?
Afternoon thunderstorms from July through August are the primary risk at elevation — lightning above treeline is fast and serious, and rain on clay-based roads in the Bighorn Basin or Red Desert can make them impassable within minutes. Check forecasts every morning and build turnaround time into your schedule.
Is cell service reliable enough for navigation on these trails?
No — assume you have no cell service once you leave pavement on most Wyoming backcountry routes. Download offline maps before you go and carry a paper backup for longer routes. A satellite communicator is worth the cost on any multi-day Wyoming overland trip.