Length: 68.0 miles / 109.4 km
Time to Allow: 2 hours minimum, but plan for more time to stop and enjoy the backway's scenery and recreation.
Witness for Yourself the Oregon Trail
Come cross the same creek through which the early pioneers waded! During the years of 1841-1868, more than 350,000 emigrants crossed Wyoming on their way to Utah, Oregon, and California. You can still see tracks and ruts left from their wagons.
Enjoy Breathtaking Scenery
Drive this 68-mile Backway to see majestic mountains, colorful bright wildflowers, and willowed river valleys with sheep grazing in the prairies. It's not uncommon while driving this Backway to see moose, elk, eagles, and the enormous sandhill cranes.
View the Rich Prehistoric History
Not far from Big Spring Backway, lies Fossil Butte National Monument. The fossils that come from this historic lake bed are among the most perfectly preserved in the world. Visitors can view complete fossils of mammals, reptiles, insects, fishes, and plants. This monument and surrounding fossil basin represent a series of three lakes. This ancient ecosystem was much like today's Florida Everglades.
Give or take a few, it is 400 miles across Wyoming on Interstate 80. By anybody’s standard that is a solid day’s travel. But hey, don’t just buzz through the state. There is a lot to see and do along the way. So much, in fact, that it’s best done in sections. So instead of hitting Wyoming at Pine Bluffs, putting the cruise control on 75 mph, and blowing out of the state around eight hours later at Evanston, set your sights on just some of the towns.
Begin your trip in Laramie, about 1/4 of the way across. This is cowboy country. read more
The 64-mile paved drive, known as the Cloud Peak Skyway, travels through the southern section of the Big Horn National Forest on US Route 16 from Buffalo over Powder River Pass, down the awe-inspiring Ten Sleep Canyon and on to the communities of Ten Sleep read more
