Powder River Pass
Powder River Pass is one of two great scenic routes across
the Bighorn Mountains, which are mostly located in north
Central Wyoming. But they reach up into Montana. This pass
has a big elevation gain, but the road never becomes very
steep. Scenically the most intersting part is the canyon
topography on the west side. The only time there seems to
be a lot of traffic is when the nation's motorcyclists are
converging on some little town in North Dakota for a kind
of american motorcycle holliday.
There is an excellent shoulder on the entire length of
this road. I seem to remember a few miles of rumble strips
on the lower west side. But they are very narrow, and to
the right much space remains for a safe ride.
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1.(mile00.0,4490ft)START-WEST:
east side of Tensleep
2.(mile07.2,5180ft)lower jct with Wy435 (old
Highway16)
3.(mile15.0,7430ft)upper jct with Wy435 (old
Highway16)
4.(mile18.8,8410ft)western turnoff to Tensleep
Reservoir and ski area
5.(mile28.6,9666ft)TOP: Powder River Pass
6.(mile29.5,9370ft)turnoff to FR26 and Munkres Pass
on right
7.(mile38.0,7900ft)turnoff to Crazy Woman Canyon Rd
on right
8.(mile43.0,8380ft)Powder River Pass Rd eastern
summit s(u)
9.(mile64.0,4670ft)START-END EAST downtown Buffalo
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Approaches
From West. US16 leaves Tensleep,
approaching the mount of Tensleep Canyon in round about
rectangular fashion. Looking at the Bighorn Mountains ahead,
the rocklayers slope up, as if you were standing in front of a
slanted roof. So later, it will not come as a surprise that
the traversed rock layers become younger not older, as you
climb up the pass.
The first geological sign informs that we are now cylcling,
surrounded by cliffs of the Tensleep Formation, a yellowish
rock, with a few old homes at its feet. Next comes the Madison
Formation. The canyon begins to widen out and a forest becomes
visible above the canyon.
Next comes the geologic star in this road show the
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite. Dolomite always knows how to put
on a grat dramatic show in a mountain setting. It's a cliff
former because it is relatively water soluble, and Two
distinct members of this dolomite form straight cliffs, still
sloping upwards like you expect this big roof to do. The road
requires a handful of switchbacks to get to a level above this
dolomite, and all of them are climbing between lips of this
rock, as they should. This Ordovician dolomite smells funny
too. - Oh wait - no, those are the break pads of the trucks
coming down. Apparently there is more climbing ahead.
By the the time the Cambrian Galatin formatin is reached,
the show is largely over. The road goes straight in dense
forest. But there is one more unusual sight - a ski resort,
well a ski area with a single lodge. At the base is a large
lake, a reservoir constructed by the CCC - a very peaceful
setting for a ski resort, maybe with apres ski skating.
All along the way various dirt roads beg for further
exploration. So far I only know Canyon Creek Road,which
connects to the CR3 Hazelton Road summit point. Slowly the
subdued summit ridge has been coming into sight. Once the top
becomes visible the work is over. The road levels out, makes
two more elegant right angle turns to reach the rocky gap at
the summit, and then even dips a little bit, as if to
encourage momentum to sling shot to the top. This summit ridge
is shaped like something that has risen through baking, but it
is pure rocks, no range land, and standing beneath it at the
summit, you could even call it a cliff. On top is a monumental
parking area - and yes a sign too with official elevation
9955t. All the parking areas along this road have been built,
so that nobody will ever have to park in the vicinity of
anybody else even on Memorial Day weekend, although some
people do this anyway. There is one more geological kicker at
the top: "precambrian gneiss: 3 to 3.8 billion years
old" reads the sign under a mountain pile of practically
indestructible rocks, a multiple of times older than the last
time rocks were exposed next to the road.
From East. (described downards)
To the same degree that the west side has remarkable canyon
scenery, this side does not. Rolling away from the rocky top,
the ride becomes a pedal as fast as you can down the gentle
forested slope thing. Going down on this side requires another
580ft climb to an unofficial point, for which I have a
separate page: the Powder
River Road eastern summit s(u). More of the approach on
that page.
Dayrides with this point as highest summit:
PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED:
( < same page | Powder
River Pass eastern summit s(u) > )
Powder River Pass, CR3
Hazelton Road northern summit s(u) : jct FR506 - CR3
Hazetlon Road > CR3 south > CR3 Hazelton road northern
summit s(u) > Rome Hills Road west > US16 west >
Tensleep > US16 east > Powder River Pass > CR3
Hazelton Road south back to starting point: 76.1miles with
7060ft of climbing in 6:0hrs (Garmin etrex30 m5:15.8.3)
Notes: In Tensleep I talked to Andre Petty, selfprofessed
bicycle adventurer: andresbicycleadventure. blogspsot.com. His
"business card" has the slogan: "Because too
much rest itself becomes a pain". - a great cool windless
day with comfortable clouds and rain that waited patiently for
me to get back to my camper.
PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED / INDISTINCT TRACKS
( < CR67 Slip
Road northern summit s(u) | same page > )
Powder River Pass, additional out and back: jct FR506 -
CR3 Hazelton Rd > FR506 west > indistinct trails and
tracks west > FR452 Gold Mine Road north > FR25 Canyon
Creek Rd north > US16 east > Powder River Pass <>
out and back to end of FR29 > > US16 east > CR3
Hazelton Rd south west back to starting point: 43.7miles with
3600ft of climbing in 4:45hrs (Garmin etrex30 m5:15.8.2)
Notes: On top of Powder River Pass I met Tim and Sandy
tf3tf3@gmail.com. This was the highest point on their cross
usa ride from Seattle to Gloucester Massachusetts. - After
that I had two consecutive flats. Fortunately I found the
offending metal clippin the second time around. I'm not sure
if Nearby Munkres Pass has the minimum 500ft elevation gain on
the west side. The elevation loss from the jct with US16 to a
low point at road's end is 460ft. But there is an indistinct
trail that leads lower after a while.
A Day on a week long Tour, with this point as highest
summit:
( < | Granite Pass >
)
Powder River Pass , Powder
River Pass eastern summit s(u) : Buffalo > US16
west > Powder River Pass > Tensleep: no measured milage,
total milage for 6 days was 384 miles (mechanical odometer;
m1:90.6.11). The only other summits on the route were Granite
Pass and .
Notes: this was part of RAW, the ride across Wyoming: day
1: Ranchester -> Buffalo, day2: Buffalo -> Powder River
Pass > Tensleep; day3: Tensleep -> Thermoplois; day4
Thermopolis - Meteetsee; day5: Meteetsee -> Shell; day6:
Shell -> Granite Pass > Ranchester.
History
The Fur Trapper Period: The Astorians ( | Cottonwood
Pass> ): In 1807, after their expedition to the north west
coast, Merriweather Lewis wrote President Jefferson about the
great potential for fur trade in the west, and also advocated
an outpost on the Columbia River to represent US presence.
Jefferson encouraged John Jacob Astor, German born New York
fur king with dreams to control the fur trade all over the
world to establsh this outpost.
This was the very beginning of the fur trade age in the
west. Sofar the North West fur company from Montreal hat
established three outposts in the west of Canada, and the
Spaniard Manuel Lisa was about to establish a fur
trading outpost near Yellowstone for his Missouri Fur Company.
In 1811 John Jacob Astor joined the list of treks west in
full force. His pack trail of 65 people, lead by William Price
Hunit, was the largest the west had seen since the days of de
Anza heading for California. Their initial objective was to
follow the Lewis and Clark route to Lemhi Pass. But in August
they met three hunters, who had been employed by the Missouri
Fur Company and who had the explored parts of Wyoming and
Montana with the likes of story tellers like John Colter and
other trappers. This changed their plans completely. Unlike
the Lewis and Clark expedition, from now on the Rocky
Mountains would be explored Spanish style, primarily on horse
back, and not by boat. After trading with Crow Indians they
ended up with 82 of these creatures.

And so Powder River Pass became the first Rocky Mountain
Pass to be crossed by the Astorians. After horse trading with
the Crows was done they followed an old Indian trail which
roughly followed today's US16 to Powder River Pass. The name
of Tensleep Creek originates from being ten sleeps away from
the Absoraka villages in the Yellowstone area. The group
followed the trail through the badlands at the western foot of
these mountains to the area of Worland. From there they
avoided them by detouring south over Cottonwood Pass and Sioux
Pass to today's Lysite.
Ashley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company: ( | Granite Pass >
)Roughly one decade later, things had not changed as much as
one might suspect. Now there was a new "fur
company", William Ashley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company.
The frist two years had gone very badly. In 1822 Ashley's goal
was to not go into the upper Missouri area, where trappers had
found more Indians wanting to kill them than beavers to kill.
Instead he wanted to go with his trappers into the Green River
area. His group of trappers was much smaller than the
Astorians in the previous decade, but the leader was the same:
William Price Hunt, originally from New Jersey.
So how would they get there. Hunt's original route west,
connecting Powder River Pass, Union Pass and Teton Pass was
not very useful for their purposes. But during the return
trip, a few Astorians, notably Robert Stuart returned from
Oregon and accidentally made the biggest discovery of the
entire journey: South Pass, a way across the Rockies that is
really not a pass but a plain. The grade is less than 30ft per
mile on each side.
In late August, after Ashley nearly went bankrupt, they
found themselves at the confluence of the Powder and
Yellowstone Rivers. Ashley spit up his already small group. He
and several others went north to look for Green River and
South Pass, while William Price Hunt again entered the Rockies
via his old route, Powder River Pass. Most of the select group
people who accompanied him, would become famous guides and fur
traders: including James Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick and
William Sublette. After coming down Tensleep Canyon, this time
they crossed the Powder River badlands, instead of detouring
to the south. This lead them to the Thermopolis area where
they used one of the passes that detoured around Wind River
Canyon
Separate from the Hunt group, but also part of the Ashley
company was another handful of men, led by Jed Smith. They
entered the Bighorns over Granite Pass

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