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Trapper Canyon

Written in collaboration with Larry Mehlhaff and Kirk Koepsel.
(010‑242)

Location and Access
Trapper Canyon lies on the west slope of the Bighorn Mountains, about five miles southeast of Shell, Wyoming. Although surrounded by private land on three sides, the BLM has an easement across private property. An access is from Shell southeast on Trapper Creek Road, staying straight - making no turns, to the southeast boundary. Four-wheel drive is recommended.

Highlights
Trapper Canyon encompasses beautiful limestone cliffs that plunge over 1200 feet to a crystal clear stream, and several hanging canyons that drop off sharply with waterfalls into Trapper Creek.

This transition zone between mountains and basin exhibit sheer canyon walls towering above steep talus slopes and stands of Douglas fir, juniper and mountain mahogany. Cottonwood, chokecherry and wild currant throng the stream sides, while sagebrush and grass dominate on the canyon rim. The riparian vegetation is some of the most pristine and lush found anywhere in Wyoming.

Wilderness Qualities

The ruggedness of this canyon is penetrated only by game trails. Those who venture into the canyon find wild, secluded travels and ideal conditions for geologic and ecologic studies. This area has been proposed for National Natural Landmark status because of its pristine riparian and forest habitat. Another special feature is the lower entrance to Great Expectations Cave‑‑the third deepest cave in the nation. More caves probably lie undiscovered along Trapper Creek. This WSA is located within BLM's West Slope Special Recreation Management Area, and about 1200 acres of the area fall within the Spanish Point Karst ACEC. Trapper Canyon is also a featured site nestled between two National Scenic Byways - the Red Gulch National Scenic Byway and the Big Horn Scenic Byway.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department considers the area suitable for wilderness designation. The area supports a hardy population of native cutthroat trout, wintering bald eagles, crucial winter range and calving grounds for 400‑500 elk, crucial winter range for 200‑300 mule deer, mountain lion, black bear, and nesting areas for golden eagle, prairie falcon, and several upland game species. Endangered peregrine falcons forage here in spring and summer (BLM 1990), but nesting habitat is presently unoccupied. A nesting occurrence of harlequin duck has been reported from this area. This area is historical range for the North American lynx. Both the lynx and duck are candidates for federal threatened/endangered listing. The wood frog also appears in this area and it is suspected that populations of wood frogs are declining statewide, though the survey is incomplete (WNDD, 1993).

The canyon has habitat in the extensive cliffs for spotted bats‑‑federal threatened and endangered candidate species--, and five state Priority Species of bats ‑-Townsend's big‑eared bats, Yuma myotis, California myotis, Keen's myotis and fringed myotis (Luce 1991).

Trapper Creek Canyon is a magnificent example of the transition zone plant life - blanched fleabane, Hapeman's sullivantia and Cary beardtongue have been listed in many areas of Trapper Canyon.

The many and varied plant communities exhibit the urgency of protecting this area as wilderness. Starting on the gentle slopes at the head of the canyon one finds the mountain big sagebrush/Idaho fescue community; in the canyon is the red-osier dogwood/bedstraw community and the prickly currant/bluebells potential community; up on the canyon rim is the Douglas fir/heartleaf arnica community; higher up is the Douglas fir/common juniper community; still higher on steeper slopes one finds the Englemann spruce/heartleaf arnica community, along with chokecherry/bedstraw potential community, limber pine/spikefescue community, mountain big sagebrush/Idaho fescue community; then from the canyon rim to the creek is the Douglas fir/mountain ninebark community; along the canyon walls is the blue-bunch wheatgrass-Hood's phlox potential community and the curlleaf mountain mahogany/bluebunch wheatgrass community; and into the riparian areas of the canyon one finds the narrow-leaf cottonwood/chokecherry community.