Pat O'hara

Pat O'hara occupies 10,912 acres of montane mountainous terrain on the Shoshone National Forest in northwestern Wyoming, set in the Absaroka country northwest of Cody. The area is shaped around two named summits — Pat O'Hara Peak and the broader Pat O'Hara Mountain — and drains the Upper Pat O'Hara Creek watershed of the Big Horn Basin. Water on the unit moves through the Upper Pat O'Hara Creek headwaters, Paint Creek, Pat O'Hara Creek, and Dry Fork, with Trough Spring contributing steady cold flow within the area. Hydrologic significance is rated moderate.

The forest mosaic shifts sharply with elevation, aspect, and soil moisture. Lower sagebrush exposures hold Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe and Northern Rockies Foothill and Valley Grassland. Mid-slopes carry Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and patches of Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest where quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) frames Gunnison's mariposa lily (Calochortus gunnisonii) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). Higher cool benches hold Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and, above that, Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest. On exposed crests, Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland with scattered whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) gives way to the open ground of Rocky Mountain Alpine Meadow and Rocky Mountain Alpine Rocky Terrain on the highest summits. Open subalpine meadows host subalpine larkspur (Delphinium occidentale) and streambank saxifrage (Micranthes odontoloma) along seeps; streamside corridors of Rocky Mountain Foothill and Subalpine Streamside Woodland thread the named creeks.

The wildlife community follows these gradients. Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) work the rocky escarpments and alpine terrain. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) move between sagebrush winter range and subalpine summer meadows, and grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) forage berry-rich aspen edges and meadow margins. Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunt the open ridges, and bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) occupy the larger drainages downstream. Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) and Williamson's Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) work the aspen and conifer edges, and broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope), and Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) pollinate the meadow forbs. Uinta ground squirrel (Urocitellus armatus) occupies the open ground, and terrestrial gartersnake (Thamnophis elegans) hunts the streambanks for amphibian prey. Native pollinators — including Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee (Bombus suckleyi) and monarch (Danaus plexippus) — move through forb-rich draws. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A visitor working up from the lower country crosses through layered terrain. Sagebrush flats give way to Douglas-fir and aspen on the cooler aspects of Pat O'Hara Mountain, with arrowleaf balsamroot and wild bergamot underfoot in midsummer. As the trail climbs toward Pat O'Hara Peak, lodgepole pine darkens the canopy and the sound of Paint Creek or Dry Fork picks up over cobbled streambeds. Above the conifer band, the limber and whitebark pine give way to alpine meadow and rocky terrain near the summit; the view runs out across the Big Horn Basin to the north and east, with Heart Mountain visible just to the south.

The Pat O'hara roadless area lies on the Shoshone National Forest northwest of Cody, Wyoming, in the Absaroka country at the northern edge of the Big Horn Basin. The forest is named after the Shoshone people, who, along with the Crow and Bannock, have called this part of northwestern Wyoming home for thousands of years [1]. The earliest inhabitants of the area now within the forest are believed to have been Indians known as the "Sheepeaters," who hunted mountain sheep and big game in the Absaroka highlands and trapped their prey in stone pens or corrals [2]. Heart Mountain, the prominent landmark immediately south of Pat O'hara, is considered sacred by the Crow and Eastern Shoshone tribes; the Crow call it Foretops Father [3].

European exploration of the country reached the region early. In 1743, the French-Canadian brothers Francois and Louis De La Verendrye traveled through the Rocky Mountain region to establish trading posts, entering the Big Horn Valley from the north and crossing the Continental Divide into the Wind River country [2]. In 1807, John Colter — having left the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Missouri — traveled up the Clarks Fork River, the same drainage that gives the modern ranger district its name; he was the first white man to see the "Stinking Water" River (now the Shoshone), so named by him because of the foul odors from mineral hot springs along its banks [2]. The trail along the Clarks Fork was for generations a transmountain route used by the Bannock, Lemhi, and other tribes moving between the Wind River country and the buffalo plains to the east [2].

Settlement followed the mountain men. The establishment of the first stockyards in Kansas City in 1870 gave impetus to the expansion of cattle ranching in the West, and Charles Carter trailed in from Oregon the first herd of cattle brought into the Big Horn Basin in 1879 [2]. Later, Captain Henry Belknap, Otto Franc, Col. W. D. Pickett, and J. M. Carey shaped ranches out of virgin territory on the west side of the Big Horn Basin, immediately adjacent to the mountain slopes now inside the forest [2].

Federal protection began here. On March 30, 1891, President Benjamin Harrison set aside the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve by proclamation under authority of the Act of March 3, 1891, making it the first unit of its kind in the United States — approximately 1.2 million acres to the south and east of Yellowstone National Park on what is now primarily the Shoshone National Forest [1][2]. The Shoshone Forest was divided into four ranger districts: Clarks Fork, Wapiti, South Fork, and Greybull [2]. The 10,912-acre Pat O'hara Inventoried Roadless Area, managed within the Clarks Fork Ranger District in Park County, takes its name from the same Anglo-settler period and is today protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Pat O'hara's 10,912 roadless acres rise from the northern edge of the Big Horn Basin in northwestern Wyoming, climbing across Pat O'Hara Mountain to the summit of Pat O'Hara Peak on the Shoshone National Forest. The roadless block spans the elevation gradient from Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe at the foot of the mountain through Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest (35.5% of area), Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest, and Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest to Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland and Rocky Mountain Alpine Meadow on the summits. Hydrology comes off the unit through the Upper Pat O'Hara Creek headwaters, Paint Creek, Pat O'Hara Creek, Dry Fork, and Trough Spring.

Vital Resources Protected

• Elevational Gradient Connectivity: Pat O'hara holds a continuous slope from low sagebrush winter range to alpine summer habitat, with no internal road interruption. The roadless block supports the seasonal movement of bighorn sheep between rocky alpine terrain and lower escarpments, mule deer between sagebrush winter range and subalpine meadows, and grizzly bear across the berry-rich aspen and conifer mosaic. This continuous gradient is the very condition that maintains Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem habitat connectivity at the southeastern edge of the grizzly recovery zone.

• High-Elevation Whitebark and Limber Pine Communities: Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland on the exposed crests and the Northern Rockies Subalpine Woodland and Parkland near the summits hold whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a federally listed species and a foundational food resource for grizzly bear and Clark's Nutcracker. These stands are already stressed range-wide by white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) and mountain pine beetle; roadless protection limits additional anthropogenic pressure on a community at high risk.

• Cold Headwater Stream Integrity: The Upper Pat O'Hara Creek headwaters, Paint Creek, and Dry Fork arise within the unit and feed the broader Big Horn Basin water system. Roadless conditions keep these channels free of culverts, road-derived sediment, and direct streambank disturbance, preserving the cold, clean water and stable channel form on which native cold-water species and downstream irrigated agriculture depend.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Linear fragmentation of a connected wildlife block: Road construction across Pat O'hara would cut linear barriers through habitat that grizzly bear, Canada lynx, and wolverine — all federally listed Threatened species with documented range in the area — use without crossing constructed corridors. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's southeastern margin already shows habitat loss to development; once a road exists, large-carnivore movement patterns are altered, and the corridor function of the unit is degraded for the duration of road presence.

• Sedimentation and stream temperature alteration: New road construction across the steep mid-slopes of Pat O'Hara Mountain would expose cut slopes to chronic erosion, delivering fine sediment into Paint Creek, Pat O'Hara Creek, and Dry Fork. Removal of streamside canopy at crossings elevates summer water temperatures, narrowing the thermal window for cold-water species; once sediment loads and channel structure are degraded in steep terrain like this, recovery takes decades.

• Invasive species in sagebrush and aspen communities: Road cut-and-fill banks function as persistent invasion pathways for non-native plants — cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and common hound's-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale) are already documented in the area's records. Establishment in Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe and Northern Rockies Foothill and Valley Grassland shifts the fire regime toward more frequent, hotter burns that prevent recovery of native sagebrush and bunchgrass composition; the change is difficult to reverse once underway.

Pat O'hara offers a quiet backcountry recreation experience defined by the long sagebrush-to-alpine traverse of Pat O'Hara Mountain. Access is from the surrounding road network of the Clarks Fork Ranger District north of Cody; no designated trailhead or campground sits within the unit itself, and visitors stage from forest roads at the area boundary before continuing on foot or horseback.

The formal trail is a single line. PAT O'HARA TRAIL (#633), 6.0 miles, native-surface, designated for equestrian use, traverses the area from foot to summit ridge. Hikers use the same route; the elevation gain across mixed sagebrush, Douglas-fir, lodgepole, and limber-pine country makes this a strong day hike or short backpack. The native-material surface holds mud in spring and standing water in the upper meadows into early summer.

Hunting is the area's primary recreational use. The Clarks Fork country supports bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) on the rocky escarpments and alpine terrain — Wyoming Game and Fish manages these as limited-quota hunts of high conservation value. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) work the sagebrush-to-aspen transition, and the area is within grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) range — hunters carry bear spray and follow grizzly-country food storage practices. Elk pass through the higher meadows on seasonal range. The absence of an internal road grid means hunters move on foot or horseback, and game distributes across the elevation gradient rather than concentrating along roads.

Anglers fish the headwater streams in the area itself sparingly — the Upper Pat O'Hara Creek headwaters, Paint Creek, Pat O'Hara Creek, and Dry Fork are small and seasonal, with Trough Spring contributing the most reliable cold flow. The water is shaded by streamside woodland and offers pocket-water angling for the resident coldwater species; serious fishing pressure goes elsewhere in the larger Shoshone drainages.

Birding works the elevation gradient. Open sagebrush and grassland on the lower margin produces Mountain Bluebird and Western Meadowlark; aspen and conifer interior holds Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) and Williamson's Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus); broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), Calliope Hummingbird (Selasphorus calliope), and Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) pollinate meadow forbs. Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunt the open ridges. The nearest registered eBird hotspots — Newton Lakes (130 species), Buffalo Bill State Park (125 species), and the Sunlight Bridge & overlook (57 species) — sit within reasonable driving distance and pair well with a Pat O'hara visit.

Photography opportunities follow the trail. Sagebrush mid-slope in spring, aspen color along the Douglas-fir bands in late September, the open shoulders of Pat O'Hara Mountain with views toward Heart Mountain to the south and across the Big Horn Basin to the east, and the rocky summit terrain near Pat O'Hara Peak in summer.

What ties these activities together is the roadless character of the unit. There is one trail, no internal road grid, no designated trailhead inside the boundary, and the wildlife block remains continuous as a result. Bighorn sheep and grizzly bear use the area as part of the larger Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem corridor, and the recreation experience — a long traverse from sagebrush winter range to alpine summer summit — is the kind of experience the roadless rule was designed to maintain.