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Bobcat Draw Badlands

Written in collaboration with Brad Carr, Gretchen Hurley, and Kirk Koepsel.
(010‑126)

Location and Access
This area is located in Big Horn and Washakie Counties, 24 miles west‑northwest of Worland in the Fifteenmile Creek drainage, and in the vicinity of Red Butte and Sheep Mountain WSAs. Access to the Bobcat Draw Badlands is either from the south on State Hwy 431 and a couple of unimproved roads, or from the north on a two track along Fifteen Mile Creek.

Highlights
The Bobcat Draw Badlands is embraced by a rugged western landscape with uniquely eroded rock mushrooms, spires, arches, goblins, castles and mud caves. Rich colors of orange, purple and red are layered throughout the broken, eroded topography of this Willwood geologic formation. Along streams in the east and north parts of the area, badlands breaks give way to broad, grassy bottoms, while high plateaus dominate the southwest corner.

Wilderness Qualities
These colorful badlands are among the most spectacular in Wyoming. Weathering by wind and water has carved layers of clay, sandstone and ancient volcanic ash into mazes and hoodoos striped with red, orange, bright purple, blue, green and grey. The National Park Service has identified some of these formations as potential National Natural Landmarks. Additionally, it includes several vegetation classes of the Wyoming Basin Province Ecoregion, which is not currently represented in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The brightly colored Willwood formation within the area contains the most comprehensive vertebrate fossil zonation of any rock in the world (Bown and Kraus 1983). Fish, crocodiles, turtles, early Eocene mammals, and many other types of fossils are found in the area (Rohrer and Gazin 1965).The site is home to pronghorn antelope, wild horses, mule deer, bobcats, fox, coyotes, and chukars. It provides crucial habitat for wintering mule deer (WGFD, 1991), golden eagles, and nesting sage grouse. Burrowing owls (a state Priority Species in Need of Special Management) have been documented in the area (Ritter 1991). Survey work for rare plants and animals has not been undertaken.