Loading…
Upper Layout Creek Trail
Free — you'll pick up right here.
Watch this trail
Sign up to watch it — saving subscribes you to gate, closure and report changes.
Montana
We won't guess. Here is exactly what we do and don't know.
What we do know
Inside Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
National Park unit boundary is mapped — agency alerts for it feed this page automatically.
Boundary data
What's missing
No access route mapped
We don't yet know which road reaches this trailhead, so we can't tell you if it's gated.
Nobody's filed a report here yet — be the first.
Upper Layout Creek Trail
AI-suggested draft · review before you go
No elevation data on file for this trail.
Upper Layout Creek Trail: Hard, 1.8 Miles Round Trip 780 feet elevation gain Erastus T. Ewing came to Bighorn Canyon looking for gold. Finding none he decided to try his hand at ranching. He knew that to make it in this arid land he would need water. In 1897, he filed to appropriate 200 inches of water per year from Layout Creek for irrigation, mining, and milling. In passing years, other inhabitants built holding ponds and added more ditch systems From the park road, immediately beyond the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range boundary, a historic site marker directs you to the Ewing/Snell Ranch. The Upper Layout Creek trail begins in the parking area to the right of the corrals. You may begin hiking here or drive to the end of the gravel road. The road ends in a small parking area big enough for two cars and the trail begins, following trail markers down to Layout Creek. The trail winds up Layout Creek Canyon past the waterfall to Layout Creek Springs. This lush secluded canyon offers a striking contrast to the surrounding arid plateau and emphasizes the importance of water to the land.
Lower Layout Creek Trail
~1 min drive
Lower Layout Creek Trail: Easy to Moderate, 3.4 Miles Round Trip The Lower Layout Creek trailhead is located at the cattle guard that marks the northern end of the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range. At the cattle guard, park on either side of the road making sure you are not bl…
Tillets Hole
~40 min drive
3.6 mi · Moderate
East Beaver
~57 min drive
6.2 mi · Hard
Dry Fork Ridge
~60 min drive
2.9 mi · Easy
Barry’s Island Trail
~5 min drive
Barry’s Island Trail: Moderate, 4 Miles Round Trip The Barry’s Island trail starts as a two-track road leading north from the Barry’s Landing parking lot. The trail goes around Chain Canyon, a secret escape route for cattle rustlers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At Barry…
South Pasture
~4 min drive
Strenuous 9.94-mile climb with nearly 5,000 ft of elevation gain.
Big Pryor
~29 min drive
Moderate 8.21-mile ridgeline hike in the Big Pryor Mountains with scenic views.
Sage Creek
~18 min drive
Easy sagebrush walk near Sage Creek with minimal elevation gain.
Ranger's Delight Trail
~9 min drive
Ranger's Delight: Easy to Moderate, 0.66 Miles Round Trip Park in the designated area on the west side of the park road one-half mile north of the Montana state line. The trail begins on the east side of the road on the lower north edge of the draw. While following the faint…
null
~4 min drive
Strenuous 10-mile alpine climb with 5,000 ft elevation gain.
