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Alkali Creek

Written in collaboration with Dave Clarendon and Liz Howell
(010‑241)

Location and Access
Alkali Creek is located in Big Horn County, 7 miles north of Hyattville. On the eastern boundary, the Red Gulch National Scenic Byway (along the west face of the Bighorn Mountains) easily accesses the area.

Highlights
Alkali Creek is an odd mix of high desert pastel plains sloping quickly downward into a tight cottonwood canyon surrounded by hoodoo sandstone pinnacles. It lies in a transition zone below the Bighorn Mountains, and offers spectacular views of the Bighorn Basin. Gradual slopes and rough canyons of red Chugwater soil contrast with pockets of blue‑green juniper and light green sagebrush, while monoliths of Tensleep sandstone jut up above the grasslands. Lemonade berries and cottonwood grow around springs and along the drainages. Elevations range from 4850 to 7000 feet.

This area has many unchartered aboriginal sites and provides a haven for wintering elk migrating from the Bighorn Mountains.

Wilderness Qualities
The Alkali Creek area holds a wealth of prehistory dating back at least 12,000 years. A cultural inventory of about one percent of the study area yielded ten sites, five of which were eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Two other known sites are also eligible. This indicates that the area contains a very high number of important archaeologic sites (BLM 1990). Known features include pictographs, petroglyphs, rock shelters, tepee rings, chert collecting areas, and stone tools. These and other undiscovered cultural resources will probably lead to listing of the area as an Archeological District as more studies are completed.

A great variety of wildlife use the area. More than 300 elk and many mule deer find crucial winter range. There are at least two sage grouse strutting grounds in the WSA and golden eagles nest here. Other desert creatures, such as pronghorn antelope, bobcats, chukar partridge, prairie falcons, and horned toads abound.

The area is unique in habitat that supports several plant species. Branched fleabane lives in the generally sparsely vegetated juniper and mountain mahogany communities is federally protected (rated 3c) as well as Cary beardtongue - a penstemon - (a candidate for federal listing). In the survey for rare plant communities, the Alkali Creeks supports two worthy of special protection - that of the "mountain big sagebrush/Idaho fescue community" and the "narrow-leaf cottonwood/chokecherry community" (WNDD, 1993).

Alkali Creek WSA is located within the West Slope Special Recreation Management Area and affords visitors access to remote, wide open spaces. It is also bordered on the east and north by the Red Gulch National Scenic Byway, and is described in BLM Byway publications as a place where one can "get away from it all" (BLM undated). The BLM has recommended most of the WSA for wilderness.

This site is also geologically important, in that it contains unique outcrops of ancient eolian sandstones.