Piney Creek

The Piney Creek Inventoried Roadless Area covers 22,240 acres on the Bighorn National Forest in north-central Wyoming, on the east face of the Bighorn Range. The area takes in Grandmas Mountain and a network of creek drainages descending toward the plains: Lower South Piney Creek, Little Piney Creek, Kearny Creek, Gin Creek, South Piney Creek, Penrose Creek, Elk Creek, and Ditch Creek, with Cloud Peak Reservoir, Flatiron Lake, Frying Pan Lake, and the Beaver Lakes holding water at higher elevations. The Rock Creek and Piney Diversion Ditch carries water from the upper creeks. These streams generate cold-water headwater flow that descends from the high country to feed the Tongue River system.

Forest communities sort along the elevation and moisture gradients. Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest (Pinus contorta) dominates the upper slopes, with Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest at the highest elevations. Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest (Pseudotsuga menziesii) holds cooler middle elevations, and the distinctive Black Hills Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna covers warm exposures with Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine (Pinus scopulorum). Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest patches the slopes with quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland and Streamside Shrubland line the creeks. The foothill margins shift through Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe, Northern Rockies Foothill Shrubland, and Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland with curl-leaf mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius). Notable understory species include arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), Wyoming Indian paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia), the large-flowered glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum), and false saxifrage (Telesonix heucheriformis) on shaded cliffs.

Wildlife sorts along these gradients. Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), moose (Alces alces), and pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) use the elevational mosaic. American black bear (Ursus americanus) and bobcat (Lynx rufus) move through forest cover. Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) and American pika (Ochotona princeps) occupy the rocky outcrops of Grandmas Mountain. Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) works the ponderosa savanna edges, and dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) hold the spruce-fir and aspen understory. Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) hunt the open meadows. Pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea), red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis), and black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) work the ponderosa pine, while ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) and American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) hold the deciduous understory along the creek bottoms. Veery (Catharus fuscescens) sings from the streamside woodland. Brown trout (Salmo trutta), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and tiger trout (a brown-brook hybrid) hold the cold-water reaches. Mountain lady's-slipper (Cypripedium montanum, IUCN vulnerable) and evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina, IUCN vulnerable) both occur. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A walker climbing from the foothills passes through sagebrush and mountain mahogany into ponderosa pine savanna where the trees stand widely spaced over grass, then into Douglas-fir and lodgepole stands. The drainages run cold past aspen groves and willow-lined banks, with the Beaver Lakes and Flatiron Lake set into upland basins. The ponderosa savanna in late summer carries the distinctive smell of warm pine bark.

The Piney Creek Inventoried Roadless Area lies on the east face of the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming, in country at the very heart of Red Cloud's War. The drainages that give the area its name — South Piney Creek, Little Piney Creek, Kearny Creek, and their tributaries — pass through ground long used by Indigenous peoples and later became the focal landscape of one of the most decisive Indian conflicts in the West. "In the 18th century, the Powder River Basin was home to the Crow Indians, and towards the turn of the 19th century, Oglala and Brulé Lakota tribes arrived from Minnesota" [1]. By the 1860s the eastern Bighorn slopes were Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho hunting country, "with the Crow mostly occupying the Bighorn Mountains, while the Lakota controlled the plains" [1].

In 1863, John Bozeman blazed the Bozeman Trail as a route from the North Platte emigrant road to the Montana gold fields — running directly through the buffalo country. Conflict escalated rapidly. In 1866, "the U. S. War Department sent Col. Henry B. Carrington into the Powder River Basin at the head of 700 troops" [2]. Carrington "built Fort Phil Kearny on Little Piney Creek near present-day Story, Wyo." [2]. The drainages that head in the Piney Creek roadless area sit directly behind the fort site, and the timber gathered for fort construction and firewood came from this country. On December 21, 1866, "a band of Oglala and Minniconjou Lakota warriors led by Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and High-Back-Bone lured Captain W. J. Fetterman over a rise near Fort Phil Kearny and into a trap. Within half an hour, Fetterman and all 80 of his men were dead" [2].

The Wagon Box Fight followed in 1867: Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and High-Back-Bone "ambushed a woodcutting party and its military escort about five miles from the fort" [2]. The party arranged 14 wagon boxes into a makeshift corral and held off the attackers with new Springfield-Allen breech-loading rifles. Following these defeats, "the 1868 treaty granted the land north of the Platte River from the Bighorns to South Dakota Territory to the Indians. Troops pulled out of Fort Phil Kearny and while they marched away, smoke billowed up behind them as Cheyenne warriors burned it to the ground, marking the end of Red Cloud's War" [2]. After Custer's 1876 defeat on the Little Big Horn, a peace commission re-opened the country, and "in 1878, Cantonment Reno, an army supply base at the Bozeman Trail crossing of the Powder River, had been renamed Fort McKinney and moved to a site on Clear Creek officially opening the Powder River country to white settlers. The town of Buffalo soon sprang up near the fort" [1].

Settler land use followed: cattle ranching across the foothills, sheep operations after 1887, and tie hacking on the east slope of the Bighorns to supply the transcontinental railroad [3]. Federal protection arrived in the 1890s. "On February 22, 1897, President Grover Cleveland signed legislation creating the Big Horn Forest Reserve, in recognition of the value these mountains hold for the American people and their livelihood" [3]. A Congressional Act changed the Reserve to the Big Horn National Forest in 1907, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt's executive order changed the name to Bighorn National Forest [3]. The 22,240-acre Piney Creek Inventoried Roadless Area sits within the Tongue Ranger District, in Johnson and Sheridan Counties, and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold Headwater Stream Integrity: The 22,240-acre roadless area generates a dense network of cold-water tributaries — South Piney Creek, Little Piney Creek, Kearny Creek, Penrose Creek, Elk Creek, and others — that feed the Tongue River system. Without road density across the east-slope drainages, sediment delivery stays low and stream temperatures remain cool under intact Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland and Subalpine Streamside Woodland. Brown trout and rainbow trout depend on the substrate condition this riparian network preserves, and downstream reaches receive clear, cold water through the dry summer.

• Ponderosa Pine Savanna and Forest Habitat Mosaic: Black Hills Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna covers warm exposures across the foothills, and is regionally distinctive within the Bighorn National Forest as the only major occurrence of this type on the forest. The widely-spaced pines support pygmy nuthatch and peregrine falcon, while the surrounding lodgepole pine, Douglas-fir, and aspen mosaic provides cover for wapiti, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and moose. The unroaded condition preserves the elevational gradient connecting the foothill savanna to the higher conifer belt.

• Mountain Mahogany Woodland and Foothill Communities: Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland with curl-leaf mountain mahogany covers steep rocky slopes at the eastern margin, providing critical winter range for mule deer and habitat for golden eagle and peregrine falcon. The roadless condition keeps these communities, along with Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest, Northern Rockies Foothill Shrubland, and Great Basin Big Sagebrush Shrubland, connected as a foothill mosaic. Mountain lady's-slipper (IUCN vulnerable) and evening grosbeak (IUCN vulnerable) both occur in this complex of habitats.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation and Trout Habitat Degradation: Road construction on the steep east-slope drainages would expose erodible substrate through cut-and-fill grading, delivering chronic sediment into the dense network of Piney Creek tributaries. NatureServe ecosystem assessments for Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest and Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest explicitly identify road-related soil loss and water-quality impacts on adjacent watersheds. Embedded sediment displaces the cobble substrate that brown trout, rainbow trout, and tiger trout require for spawning and food production. Streambed recovery after road network installation is exceptionally slow.

• Wildlife Habitat Fragmentation: NatureServe documents roads and railroads (threat category 4.1) as a documented stressor on species in this area's pool including American black bear, American pika, bobcat, moose, mountain lady's-slipper, wapiti, and white-tailed deer. Road construction would convert continuous forest and ponderosa savanna into edge habitat, disrupting the seasonal movement that wapiti and mule deer require between the eastern foothill winter range and the upper conifer summer range. Interior-forest species including ovenbird and American redstart, both confirmed in the area, lose breeding habitat to edge effects that propagate well beyond the road prism.

• Ponderosa Savanna Disturbance and Invasive Pathways: Black Hills Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna has already been altered region-wide by fire suppression, and additional disturbance from road construction would compound that pressure. Disturbed corridors created by road grading provide colonization pathways for cheatgrass, common mullein, common tansy, sulphur cinquefoil, and other invasive species already documented in the adjacent landscape. Once established along a road, these species spread laterally into the savanna and sagebrush understory, displacing native ground cover. Eradication is rarely possible once a road network is in place.

The 22,240-acre Piney Creek Inventoried Roadless Area on the Bighorn National Forest sits on the east face of the Bighorn Range, on the Tongue Ranger District, in country adjacent to Fort Phil Kearny and the town of Story. The area includes Grandmas Mountain and a dense network of named drainages — South Piney, Little Piney, Kearny, Gin, Penrose, Elk, and Ditch Creeks — along with Cloud Peak Reservoir, Flatiron Lake, Frying Pan Lake, and the Beaver Lakes. Nineteen mapped trails cross the area, supporting hiking, horse travel, hunting, fishing, and birding.

The Solitude Loop Trail (#038) is the longest backcountry route at 13.0 miles, designated for horse use and forming the principal multi-day circuit. The Story-Penrose Trail (#033) covers 12.2 miles connecting the eastern foothill town up into the Penrose Park country. The Stockwell Trail (#086) at 6.2 miles follows another major drainage, and the Penrose Park Trail (#028) covers 5.2 miles. Shorter routes include the Spear Lake Trail (#036) at 3.2 miles, the Penrose Creek Trail (#118) at 2.8 miles, the Frying Pan Lake Trail (#037) at 2.5 miles, the South Piney Trail (#080) at 2.5 miles, the HF Bar Trail (#034) at 2.4 miles, the Cloud Peak Cutoff (#082) at 1.4 miles, the Middle Rock Creek Trail (#043) at 1.2 miles, and the Tut's 038 Shortcut (#400) at 1.2 miles. The Kearny Cutoff (#414) at 1.0 miles, the South Piney Hiking Trail (#626) at 0.9 miles (foot-only), the Willow Loop Trail (#200) at 0.9 miles, the Penrose Cut Across (#101) at 0.8 miles, and the Elk Lake Cutoff (#130) at 0.6 miles round out the network. A short Willow Reservoir Dam Trail (#092) covers 0.2 miles. The South Piney ATV Trail (#621) at 0.8 miles is the single ATV-designated route. Most other trails are designated for horse use.

Hunting is a major draw across the elevational gradient. Wapiti, mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose, and pronghorn use the cover-meadow mosaic. American black bear works the forest cover. Wild turkey ranges through the ponderosa savanna and forest edges, and dusky grouse and ruffed grouse hold the higher forest. Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulations and area-specific tags apply throughout. Hunters should consult the Tongue Ranger District for closures and motorized access rules.

Fishing is excellent. Brown trout, rainbow trout, and tiger trout (a brown-brook hybrid) hold cold-water reaches of the Piney Creek drainages. Spear Lake, Frying Pan Lake, Cloud Peak Reservoir, the Beaver Lakes, and Willow Reservoir provide standing-water fishing accessible from the trail network. Wyoming Game and Fish regulations apply throughout.

Birding is exceptional. Eleven eBird hotspots lie within 24 km of the area; Lake De Smet reports 195 species. Inside the unit, the Black Hills Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna supports pygmy nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, hairy woodpecker, and black-capped chickadee. The streamside woodland and aspen along the creek bottoms hold ovenbird, American redstart, veery, MacGillivray's warbler, and least flycatcher — a notable diversity for a Bighorn east-slope area. Mountain bluebird, Clark's nutcracker, and red crossbill work the upper conifer slopes. Calliope hummingbird and broad-tailed hummingbird feed at wildflower meadows. Peregrine falcon and golden eagle hunt the cliffs and ridges. Wild turkey and great horned owl work the ponderosa-forest mosaic.

Photography subjects include Grandmas Mountain, the ponderosa pine savanna in late summer light, the cold-water creek drainages, and seasonal wildflowers including arrowleaf balsamroot, Wyoming Indian paintbrush, and large-flowered glacier lily.

The recreation here depends on the roadless condition. Roads constructed for any purpose would convert the 19 mapped trails into motorized corridors, fragment the seasonal movement of wapiti, mule deer, moose, and black bear, deliver chronic sediment into the cold-water Piney Creek drainages, and disturb the historically significant landscape adjacent to Fort Phil Kearny. The current network supports the quiet backcountry use the area's unroaded condition makes possible.