Judith River Breaks Back Country Road

This forgotten track winds 28 miles through the Judith River Breaks where Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch cached stolen livestock in hidden coulees during the 1890s. The route follows old stock trails and homesteader roads across eroded prairie badlands carved by ice-age floods, passing abandoned homesteads and crossing the muddy Judith River at Valentine Bridge. Watch for fossil fragments in the exposed Hell Creek Formation shale — this country holds some of the world’s last dinosaur bones.

Easy to moderate difficulty requiring only high-clearance 2WD in dry conditions, but the gumbo clay becomes impassable when wet. Spring and fall offer the best weather, though summer thunderstorms can strand you for days. Carry water and emergency food — the nearest supplies are 40 miles in Lewistown. You’ll find excellent dispersed camping along the river breaks and genuine Montana solitude in country that hasn’t changed much since the outlaw days.