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Sheep Mountain

Written in collaboration with Brad Carr and Gretchen Hurley
(010‑130)

Location and Access
This area lies 18 miles west of the town of Basin, and 5 miles northeast of Bobcat Draw Badlands WSA. It adjoins the Red Butte Citizens Wilderness Proposal, to the southeast. Access is from an improved road from the north.

Highlights
Sheep and Tatman Mountains dominate the landscape, while deeply cut badlands and highly eroded red-hued soils flank the mountain peaks, creating a maze of irregular landform patterns. Outcrops of the Willwood and Tatman formations provide colorful, rugged vistas throughout the area. The sharply incised drainages fan out from the mountains to become broad, soft, grassy bottoms along the perimeter of the area.

Wilderness Qualities
Some of the most striking and unspoiled badlands in Wyoming are found here. Additionally, several vegetative classes of the Wyoming Basin Province Ecoregion, which is not included in the NWPS, are in the area (BLM 1990a).

The area contains early Eocene fossils of world renown. At least 77 genera and 140 species of mammals, including the ancestors of tapirs and pigs, can be found in the area (Bown and Kraus 1983).

Present day mammals include mule deer and pronghorn antelope which depend upon the crucial winter range the area provides (WGFD, 1991). Wild horses, transient bighorn sheep, bobcats, and coyotes are also in the proposed Wilderness area. Hawks, falcons, and strutting sharp‑tailed grouse and sage grouse can also be found here (BLM 1990a). At least 15 bald eagles (federally listed endangered/threatened) are observed roosting in the area during the winter (WNDD, 1993).