Red Gulch / Alkali
National Backcountry Byway
Personal Notes
This page contains our personal notes on our drive along the Red Gulch / Alkali National Backcountry Byway in Wyoming.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
11:20 a.m.
After we visited the Medicine Lodge State Park and the Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site, we headed north along the Red Gulch / Alkali Backcountry Byway (see the Overview page for specific directions). This is a mostly graded dirt road that passes through some interesting backcountry in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. There are steep cliffs, deep canyons, and lots of open space. There are no facilities, so bring plenty of water and food.
Along the way there are colorful cliffs and gulches. The road requires some map skills, and a GPS and/or compass would be helpful as there are several confusing intersections. But we made our way through without having to backtrack. We did encounter a few other vehicles along the route, but overall we were the only ones out there.
1:01 p.m.
Near the north end of the route, about five miles before we reached Highway 14 west of Shell, we came upon the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite. There are restrooms and covered picnic tables there. But no drinking water. A typical car could make the drive from the north, but I would recommend only a high clearance vehicle with four wheel drive when coming the longer route from the south. We ran into one wash that was filled with loose dry sand. Without our four wheel drive we might have gotten stuck.
