Devils Canyon

Devils Canyon is a 37,416-acre Inventoried Roadless Area on the western flank of the Bighorn National Forest in north-central Wyoming. The mountainous, montane terrain is cut by deep canyons in the limestone and dolomite of the Bighorn uplift. Named landforms include Sheep Mountain, Duncum Mountain, Cone Mountain, and Five Springs Point on the high ground, with Lowmiller Bench, Mexican Hill, Hannans Coulee, and Cookstove Basin stepping down toward the foothills. The area sits at the headwaters of Upper Porcupine Creek (HUC12 100800100501), a major arm of the Bighorn River system. Porcupine Creek, Bucking Mule Creek, Long Park Creek, Big and Little Tepee Creeks, Trout Creek, Deer Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Railroad Springs Creek thread through the area. Two waterfalls — Bucking Mule Falls and Porcupine Falls — mark where streams plunge over canyon rims.

Vegetation arranges itself along sharp elevation, aspect, and moisture gradients. Cool, north-facing upper slopes carry Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, where Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) dominate over a carpet of grouseberry (Vaccinium scoparium). Drier, south-facing slopes shift into Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest dominated by lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). Wind-exposed ridges hold Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland with limber pine (Pinus flexilis), while Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland carries curl-leaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) on warm aspects. Lower elevations open into Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe and Great Basin Big Sagebrush Shrubland with Wyoming Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia), sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum), and sulphur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum). Riparian corridors host Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland with narrowleaf cottonwood (Populus angustifolia) and streamside bluebells (Mertensia ciliata). Rocky ledges support Jones' columbine (Aquilegia jonesii), Cary beardtongue (Penstemon caryi), and cushion-forming one-flower kelseya (Kelseya uniflora).

Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and moose (Alces alces) range the meadows and streamside willow thickets. American black bear (Ursus americanus) moves between forest and edge habitat. Above treeline, the American pika (Ochotona princeps) clips vegetation among talus, while yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) basks on nearby boulders. Conifer canopies hold mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli) and Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), the latter a critical seed disperser for limber pine. The American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) hunts aquatic invertebrates in the riffles of Porcupine and Bucking Mule creeks, where brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) feed in cold pools. Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) work the canyon rims, and the black rosy-finch (Leucosticte atrata) forages on snowfields. The soft aster (Symphyotrichum molle), classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, persists on dry slopes. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A visitor climbing from Lowmiller Bench passes from sagebrush flats into mountain-mahogany scrub, then into the shade of Douglas-fir. The trail to Bucking Mule Falls drops sharply into the canyon as the air cools and the roar of falling water builds. At Porcupine Falls, water cascades into a plunge pool ringed by aspen and Engelmann spruce. On the open ridges near Sheep Mountain and Duncum Mountain, the forest thins to limber-pine krummholz and Clark's nutcracker calls carry across the slope.

For centuries before Euro-American settlement, the Bighorn Mountains lay at the heart of Apsáalooke (Crow) territory. The people of the Crow Nation call themselves the Apsáalooke, "Children of the Large Beaked Bird" [2]. The Mountain Crow lands straddled the present Montana-Wyoming border, with the Black Hills of South Dakota as the eastern edge of their territory, and the Kicked In The Bellies band lived in an area from the Bighorn Mountains to the Wind River Range in central Wyoming [2]. High on the range, the Medicine Wheel — a sacred stone alignment — has been used by many tribes from before Euro-American contact to today [5]. In April 1884 the Crow consolidated onto a permanent reservation, opening their former mountain hunting grounds to White settlement [3].

Industrial use followed. The railroad tie industry began in the 1860s to support construction of the first transcontinental railroad across southern Wyoming [1]. Wyoming's tie hacking industry was developed in four regions around the state, including the eastern slopes of the Bighorn Mountains [1], where Devils Canyon's headwaters in Porcupine, Bucking Mule, and Tepee creeks drain off the range. The first cutting operation in the Bighorns was started in 1891 on Sheep Creek to provide 1.6 million ties for the expansion of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad [1]. Tie hacks squared lodgepole pine into eight-foot timbers using broadaxes, and ties were floated downstream in V-shaped flumes built down the Tongue River canyon. The last major tie cutting operation in the Bighorn National Forest started west of Buffalo in late 1925, and operations ended around 1933 [1]. Sheep and cattle grazing on the reserve was authorized beginning in 1906, with tens of thousands of animals admitted under permit [4].

Federal protection arrived as the industrial boom continued. The Bighorn National Forest, created on February 22, 1897, is one of the oldest national forests in the United States [4][6]. President Grover Cleveland established the Bighorn Forest Reserve under authority granted by section 24 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891 [4][5]. In July 1908 the name was changed from the Big Horn Forest Reserve to the Bighorn National Forest through an executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt [4]. A year later the headquarters of the forest was changed from Big Horn to Sheridan [4]. Devils Canyon today sits within the Medicine Wheel Ranger District, on the northwestern slope where Porcupine Creek and Bucking Mule Creek cut deep canyons through Big Horn and Sheridan counties. The 37,416-acre area is administered as an Inventoried Roadless Area protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold Headwater Stream Integrity. Devils Canyon contains the headwaters of Upper Porcupine Creek (HUC12 100800100501) along with Bucking Mule Creek, Long Park Creek, Big Tepee Creek, Trout Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Railroad Springs Creek — high-gradient streams that emerge from springs and snowmelt within Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland and plunge over Bucking Mule Falls and Porcupine Falls. The unroaded condition keeps sediment loads low and water temperatures cold, sustaining downstream aquatic habitat throughout the Bighorn River system.

• Interior Forest and Subalpine Habitat Integrity. The 37,416-acre area protects an unfragmented mosaic of Rocky Mountain Dry and Wet Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest, and Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest, transitioning into Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe and Black Hills Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna at lower elevations. Without internal roads, interior canopy conditions persist for species sensitive to edge effects, and lodgepole and limber-pine stands retain old-growth structural complexity not generally found in nearby managed areas.

• Elevational Gradient Connectivity. The area spans a continuous montane-to-subalpine elevational gradient across Sheep Mountain, Duncum Mountain, Cone Mountain, and the Lowmiller Bench foothills. This intact gradient functions as climate refugia, allowing temperature-sensitive species — such as the American pika in talus and limber pine on wind-exposed ridges — to shift upslope as conditions change, and allowing wapiti and moose to migrate between summer high-country forage and lower winter range. The soft aster (Symphyotrichum molle), classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, persists in dry-slope habitat across this gradient.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation, Channel Incision, and Stream Warming. Road cut slopes in the steep limestone and dolomite terrain of Devils Canyon would deliver chronic fine sediment into Porcupine, Bucking Mule, and Cottonwood Creeks, smothering spawning substrate and reducing the cold-water habitat that aquatic invertebrates and the American dipper depend on. Canopy removal along streamside corridors raises water temperatures, and culverts at stream crossings create migration barriers that fragment longitudinal connectivity within the Bighorn River drainage. These hydrologic changes are difficult to reverse: stable channel morphology and intact streamside woodland communities take decades to redevelop once disturbed.

• Forest Fragmentation and Invasive Establishment. Roads through Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest and Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe sever continuous habitat blocks, replacing interior conditions with linear edge zones that favor disturbance-adapted species over native plant assemblages such as Wyoming Indian-paintbrush, Cary beardtongue, and the cushion-forming one-flower kelseya. Disturbed corridors are documented vectors for invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and other non-native annuals that alter fire regimes in sagebrush systems. Once established at landscape scale, these invasive grass-fire feedbacks are extremely difficult to reverse.

• Loss of Climate Refugia and Increased Disease Pressure. Road construction across the elevational gradient fragments the connectivity that allows species like American pika and limber pine to track suitable climate conditions upslope. Mechanized access also concentrates human movement that has been linked to the spread of white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), a non-native pathogen that has caused serious decline in limber pine stands across the Rocky Mountain region. The combined effects of warming temperatures, fragmentation, and pathogen introduction are accelerated — not mitigated — by new road networks.

Devils Canyon offers backcountry recreation across 37,416 mountainous acres on the western flank of the Bighorn National Forest. Six maintained trails total 27.9 miles and serve hikers, equestrians, and a single bike route. The Bucking Mule Falls Trail (053) runs 12.6 miles across native-material tread and is designated for horse use, reaching the rim of Bucking Mule Falls where the creek plunges over a sheer canyon wall. The Lodge Grass Trail (061) covers 8.7 miles of horse-designated tread, and the Mexican Hill Trail (054) adds another 1.0-mile horse route. Foot travelers have two shorter options: the Tillets Hole Trail (052) at 1.9 miles and the Porcupine Falls Trail (135), a 0.4-mile route that drops steeply to the base of Porcupine Falls. The Old Highway Trail (140), 3.3 miles of native-material tread, is open to bicycles — the only bike-designated route in the area.

Five established trailheads provide entry: Bucking Mule Falls, JAWS, Porcupine Falls, Five Springs Falls Trail Head, and Five Springs Falls Old Highway Trail Head. The Porcupine Campground and the Five Springs Falls Upper and Lower Campgrounds support overnight stays at the perimeter, with dispersed camping available within the roadless area under USFS guidelines.

Anglers find brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in the cold headwater streams of Upper Porcupine Creek, Bucking Mule Creek, Long Park Creek, Big Tepee Creek, Trout Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and Railroad Springs Creek. These streams are small, high-gradient, and reached mainly on foot from the named trails — the canyon walls and absence of internal roads keep angling pressure low. Wyoming Game and Fish regulations apply, and a state fishing license is required.

Hunting is supported by big-game and forest-grouse populations distributed across the area's habitat mosaic. Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and moose (Alces alces) use the meadows, aspen stands, and streamside willow thickets; American black bear (Ursus americanus) moves through Douglas-fir and lodgepole stands. Dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) holds the forest-edge habitats. Hunting follows Wyoming Game and Fish seasons, hunt-area boundaries, and licensing requirements.

Birding is concentrated in the Medicine Wheel eBird hotspot, which has recorded 61 species across 61 checklists within 24 km of the roadless area. Inside Devils Canyon itself, the elevation gradient supports a wide range of species in their proper habitats: golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) along the canyon rims; American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) in the riffles of Porcupine Creek; mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli), Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii), and American three-toed woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis) in the spruce-fir and lodgepole canopy; rock wren (Salpinctes obsoletus) and horned lark (Eremophila alpestris) on open rocky slopes; and American pipit (Anthus rubescens) at higher elevations.

Equestrian travel is the dominant mode of long-distance use, supported by four of the six trails. Outfitter and packer access into this part of the Bighorns has long depended on routes like Bucking Mule Falls and Lodge Grass, which traverse open ridges, montane forest, and creek crossings without requiring vehicle support.

Photographers come for Bucking Mule Falls and Porcupine Falls, the canyon walls of Devil Canyon, and broad views from Sheep Mountain and Duncum Mountain. The lack of internal roads keeps these views uncluttered by infrastructure.

Each of these activities depends on the roadless condition. Hikers and equestrians reach the falls through unbroken forest; brook trout populations persist because streams are not crossed by culverts; big game uses unfragmented winter range and migration corridors; raptors nest on canyon rims undisturbed by mechanized traffic. New road construction would shorten foot and stock travel times but at the cost of the conditions that make Devils Canyon a destination.