Wapiti Valley South

Wapiti Valley South covers 43,517 acres on the south side of the North Fork of the Shoshone River in Park County, Wyoming, within the Shoshone National Forest. The terrain rises from the river valley into the volcanic peaks of the Absaroka Range, with Double Mountain, Coxcomb Mountain, Flag Peak, Table Mountain, and Clayton Mountain as the dominant summits. Post Point, Henry Ford Rock, and Laughing Pig Rock anchor the prominent rock features, and Blackwater Natural Bridge spans one of the canyon walls. The drainages include Lower Elk Fork headwaters, Blackwater Creek and its west fork, Fishhawk Creek, Newton Creek, Goff Creek, Cougar Creek, Clearwater Creek, and Grace Creek, all feeding the North Fork of the Shoshone River; Frost Reservoir and Newton Spring lie in the upper basins.

The vegetation reads as a Greater Yellowstone elevational transect. Wyoming Basin Dwarf Sagebrush, Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, and Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe occupy the open benches above the river, with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), Wyoming paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia), and Lewis flax (Linum lewisii) on the dry slopes. Intermountain Mountain Mahogany Woodland marks the rocky pitches. Above, Central Rockies Douglas-fir Forest occupies more than a third of the area, transitioning into Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest and Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, where Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and subalpine fir grow alongside whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis, globally endangered) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis). The high alpine carries Rocky Mountain Alpine Meadow with yellow columbine (Aquilegia flavescens) and the Absaroka endemic Absaroka beardtongue (Penstemon absarokensis). Small glaciers and ice fields persist in the highest shaded cirques.

The Wapiti Valley South area supports the full Greater Yellowstone large-mammal community. Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and moose (Alces alces) move through the elevational range; bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) hold the cliff country. American bison (Bison bison, near threatened) range across the wider Yellowstone landscape. Brown bear (Ursus arctos), American black bear (Ursus americanus), mountain lion (Puma concolor), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and coyote (Canis latrans) make up the predator community. North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) work the lower drainages, and American pika (Ochotona princeps) call from the high talus. Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis) hold in the cold tributaries, along with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches whitebark pine seeds, and osprey (Pandion haliaetus) hunts the North Fork. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A rider on the Elk Fork Trail climbs 10.6 miles into the upper basin past Frost Reservoir; the Fishhawk Creek Trail (10.5 miles) and Kitty Creek Trail (8.4 miles) reach high meadows below the Holy City rock formations. The Blackwater Trail toward Clayton Mountain (7.8 miles) crosses the country where the 1937 fire ran. The asphalt Holy City Handicap Trail (0.2 miles) gives wheelchair visitors a view of the same rock pinnacles from the highway shoulder.

The Wapiti Valley South roadless area lies along the Absaroka Range on the south side of the North Fork of the Shoshone River, west of Cody. The mountains of northwestern Wyoming were inhabited in prehistoric times by the Mountain Shoshone, often called the Tukudeka or Sheepeaters, who hunted bighorn sheep, deer, and elk in the high country and gathered plants, fish, and insects [1]. Dense assemblages of projectile points and other tools have been found high in the Absaroka Range of northwest Wyoming, and Shoshone-associated artifacts include teshoas — knives used by Shoshonean women — soapstone vessels, and chert, quartzite, and obsidian projectile points [1]. The Mountain Shoshone built conical log dwellings called wickiups, some of which still stand, and crafted bows from bighorn sheep horn [1].

On March 30, 1891, President Benjamin Harrison signed the proclamation creating the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve — approximately 1.2 million acres south and east of Yellowstone National Park, on what is now primarily the Shoshone National Forest [4]. This was the first land withdrawal of its kind in the United States [4]. In 1903, the Wapiti Ranger Station was built about 30 miles west of Cody on the North Fork of the Shoshone River, adjacent to the Wapiti Valley South country. It was the first ranger station constructed in the United States at federal expense, built as the supervisory station for the Shoshone division of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve [5]. The U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905, and the area became part of the Shoshone National Forest.

The defining historical event in this country occurred on the afternoon of August 21, 1937. A lightning strike on August 18 had ignited a fire in Blackwater Canyon, a tributary of the North Fork of the Shoshone within the area, but the blaze went undetected for two days and crept through ground fuels [2]. By the morning of August 21, more than 100 firefighters were working the fire, including a Civilian Conservation Corps crew of young Texans from the Ten Sleep camp in the Bighorn National Forest [2]. At 3:45 p.m., a dry cold front passed over the canyon and wind gusts reached 45 mph, igniting an undiscovered spot fire that ran up the drainage in a firestorm [3]. Ranger Alfred G. Clayton and seven members of his crew died at the gulch now named for him; Ranger Urban Post led his crew to a rocky ridgeline now called Post Point, where seven more men, including Junior Forester Paul Tyrrell — who shielded panicked enrollees with his own body — were killed [2]. Fifteen firefighters died in total, ten of them young Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from Texas, and thirty-eight were injured; the fire burned approximately 1,700 acres of Shoshone National Forest land [3].

The Blackwater Fire was the first fatality fire to have significant immediate investigation and study, and the analysis led directly to the development of the U.S. Forest Service's smokejumper program, authorized two years later by fire-control investigator David P. Godwin to reduce the time-delay problems encountered in the response [3]. A 71-foot stone monument bearing the names of the dead was dedicated 38 miles west of Cody in August 1939, with two smaller CCC-built memorials at Clayton Gulch and Post Point reached by backcountry trail [2]. The 43,517-acre Wapiti Valley South roadless area lies today within the Wapiti Ranger District of the Shoshone National Forest in Park County, Wyoming, and is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• North Fork of the Shoshone Watershed Integrity. Eighteen named streams — Lower Elk Fork headwaters, Blackwater Creek and its west fork, Fishhawk Creek, Newton Creek, Cougar Creek, Goff Creek, and others — drain through this area into the North Fork of the Shoshone River. The roadless condition protects cold, sediment-free flow for downstream fisheries and maintains the springs and seeps (Newton Spring, Frost Reservoir) that sustain late-season baseflow. Native Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout and rainbow trout depend on the clean gravels of these tributaries.

• Greater Yellowstone Carnivore Connectivity. The area lies within the potential range of federally threatened grizzly bear, Canada lynx, and North American wolverine, and provides movement habitat between Yellowstone National Park to the west and the Washakie Wilderness to the south. Continuous unbroken habitat supports den security, prey availability, and seasonal range for the full predator guild — including gray wolf, mountain lion, and black bear — that defines the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

• Whitebark Pine and Cliff-Dwelling Species. The roadless tract holds stands of federally threatened whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) on the high ridges, providing a major fall food source for grizzly bear and Clark's nutcracker. The cliff bands of Coxcomb Mountain, Flag Peak, and Table Mountain provide secure lambing and rutting habitat for bighorn sheep. The Absaroka endemic Absaroka beardtongue (Penstemon absarokensis) persists on the area's rocky alpine slopes — habitat sensitive to physical disturbance.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation from volcanic slopes. The Absaroka volcanic terrain is highly erodible; road cuts and ditches on the slopes above Blackwater Creek, Fishhawk Creek, and Elk Fork would deliver chronic sediment to the North Fork of the Shoshone fishery. Stream temperature increase from canopy removal at crossings exceeds the thermal tolerance of native cutthroat trout. Once volcanic ash and tuff are destabilized, mass movement and chronic sediment input continue for decades.

• Grizzly bear conflict and carnivore corridor fragmentation. Roads in grizzly bear habitat create predictable conflict points where bears encounter humans at vehicle speed and where roadside attractants concentrate bears in places they are likely to be killed. Permanent road surfaces also fragment lynx and wolverine habitat, breaking the corridor between Yellowstone National Park and the higher wilderness to the south, and increase human access into core habitat for gray wolf, mountain lion, and black bear.

• Cliff and alpine habitat disturbance. Roads accessing the high benches below Coxcomb Mountain, Table Mountain, and Clayton Mountain would push bighorn sheep into smaller, less productive habitat patches during lambing and rutting. The high meadow communities — including the Absaroka beardtongue and the few remaining whitebark pine stands — recover slowly from physical disturbance, and ignition risk along road corridors threatens stands already in decline from white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetle.

The Wapiti Valley South area carries approximately 62 miles of native-material horse trail and a short accessible footpath across Shoshone National Forest land. The Elk Fork Trail (760), 10.6 miles, climbs into the upper Elk Fork basin past Frost Reservoir, with grazing for stock along the route; the Fishhawk Creek Trail (757), 10.5 miles, reaches the high meadows below Pagoda Creek; the Kitty Creek Trail (756), 8.4 miles, and Blackwater Trail to Clayton Mountain (758), 7.8 miles, climb to the country where the 1937 Blackwater Fire ran. The West Blackwater Trail/Natural Bridge (775), 4.6 miles, accesses Blackwater Natural Bridge. The Table Mountain/Green Creek Trail (765), Pagoda Creek Trail (785), Clocktower Creek Trail (784), Grace Creek Trail (760.5), Nameit Creek Trail (783), Goff Creek Trail (790), and shorter Clearwater Creek (759) routes give access into named drainages. Trailheads at Fishhawk, Green Creek, Eagle Creek, Clearwater, Kitty Creek, Clocktower, Blackwater, and Elk Fork distribute access along the highway corridor.

The Holy City Handicap Trail (794), 0.2 miles of asphalt and the only non-horse route in the network, provides wheelchair-accessible access from the North Fork of the Shoshone Highway corridor to a view of the Holy City rock pinnacles in the Absaroka Range — a rare alpine landscape feature accessible to visitors with mobility limitations.

Six developed campgrounds anchor weekend and outfitter access along the highway corridor and at the major trailheads: Rex Hale Campground (named for a Blackwater Fire victim), Clearwater, Elk Fork, Wapiti, Big Game, and Newton Creek. Beyond the developed sites, dispersed backcountry camping is permitted on national forest land throughout the area. The combination of valley campgrounds and high-mileage trails into the backcountry supports a wide range of trip structures — day rides, multi-day pack trips, base-camp hunting operations — within a single roadless area.

Under Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulations, hunters pursue wapiti (Cervus canadensis), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), moose (Alces alces), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), and American black bear (Ursus americanus); the country is also grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat, and hunters must comply with food-storage and carcass-handling regulations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Cold-water angling is supported on Blackwater Creek, Fishhawk Creek, Elk Fork, Newton Creek, Clearwater Creek, and Frost Reservoir, which hold native Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis), introduced rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and the hybrid Rocky Mountain cutbow. Outfitters licensed by Shoshone National Forest commonly base hunting trips at Rex Hale, Elk Fork, or Newton Creek campgrounds and ride into the backcountry from the corresponding trailheads.

The Wapiti and Elk Fork Campgrounds eBird hotspot records 117 species across 96 checklists — golden eagle, bald eagle, osprey, Townsend's solitaire, Clark's nutcracker, mountain bluebird, and lazuli bunting among them. Photographers find subject matter at the Holy City pinnacles, Blackwater Natural Bridge, the cliff bands of Coxcomb Mountain and Table Mountain, the small glaciers below the high peaks, and the wapiti rut along Elk Fork in fall. The 1937 fire memorials at Clayton Gulch and Post Point are reached by trail.

What this country provides — long-mileage horseback pack trips into the high Absarokas, big-game hunting in the full Greater Yellowstone carnivore landscape, cold-water angling in the North Fork's tributaries, and quiet access to the 1937 fire memorials — depends on the absence of roads inside the boundary. The trails begin at perimeter trailheads and end in country no vehicle can reach. The fishery, the elk migration, and the wilderness character of the historic memorials all depend on what is not built.