Green Oasis Campground

11/15/2025

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Visit Antelope Butte Mountain Recreation Area in Shell, WY for downhill and cross country skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking and more.

01/26/2023

Great Horned Owl
Silent Hunter

Found on the shores of the canyon and rivers, the Great Horned Owl is the silent night assassin of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. With special adaptations like large, light-soaking eyes to see in the darkness, aerodynamically designed feathers that let the owl glide through the air silently and the strongest grip of any of the predator birds in America, the Great Horned Owl is the top of many food chains.

For such a dominant predator, it is no surprise that Great Horned Owls make their homes in almost every terrain in the United States, preferring secondary-growth areas like agricultural areas and woodlands. A typical territory would include fields to hunt and forested areas for shelter. They also like urban areas such as parks and even cities.

Feeding the largest owl in North America can be hard work sometimes, but it helps not to be a picky eater. Prey for the Great Horned Owl includes everything from small rodents and insects to medium to large birds such as geese and other owls to medium size mammals like skunks. Flying tree to tree, these owls slowly stock their prey until they are above or right behind it and silently grab the prey with their massive talons. The only limit to what an owl can eat is what it can fit down its throat. Owl pellets, the portion of an animal that could not be properly digested, can be used to understand the eating habits of these owls.

Great Horned Owls generally mate for life. They nest in cottonwood, juniper, beech, and pine trees. They will repurpose a nest used by another bird species or find cavities in trees, deserted buildings, and cliffs. Once ready, the female lays 1-4 eggs, each hatching in the order they are laid 30-37 days later. The male and female pair protect and feed the chicks for 42 days until the young can leave the nest.

The Great Horned Owl is an icon, and to see or hear one is a treasure to behold.

Photo Credits: NPS photo- https://npgallery.nps.gov

08/18/2022

Our Wyoming

08/11/2022

Captain Ashley...

William Ashley part II:

Perfecting The Rendezvous
In 1824 following a nightmarish expedition -characterized by hardship, hostile activity and low profits - Ashley's founding partner, Andrew Henry, quit the fur trade. Ashley took to the field on a historic trip that forever changed the fur trade.

Ashley and his men set out on the expedition in the fall of 1824. They would cover parts of present day Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. Nine months later, in early July of 1825, a highly successful rendezvous was held on the Henry’s Fork of Green River in what is today western Wyoming. From this rendezvous, Ashley and his men returned via the Bad Pass Trail. The Bad Pass was a detour across the rugged land west of Bighorn Canyon. Ashley would dare not chance having his rich packs of beaver furs lost in the unpredictable waters of the Bighorn.

One member of this inaugural expedition did chance the rapids though. Jim Bridger, mountain man par excellence, built a boat out of driftwood and managed to navigate the Bighorn, making the first recorded passage through the canyon. By August 7th, Ashley’s party arrived just below the mouth of the canyon - the end of the Bad Pass Trail - at Grapevine Creek. Here they constructed bullboats over the next 5 days, floating the Bighorn. Part of the company, led by William Sublette was sent back over the Bad Pass Trail to continue trapping around the Green River area.

Value And Efficiency
The river run back was uneventful for Ashley and the other members of his company. On October 4, 1825 they arrived in St. Louis with 100 packs of beaver pelts valued at $50,000. The significance and success of Ashley’s trip was long lasting.

The rendezvous system brought trade goods and supplies to the mountain men at a central, predetermined point. This would occur at the height of the summer, when beavers had left the streams. The trade goods would now be brought out on an overland route, thus the fur trade was no longer tied to water routes. Ashley’s company would worry about navigating the waterways back to St. Louis, all the trappers had to do was show up at a fixed place. Furs would now be trapped by small groups who had a vested interest in the rendezvous system.

They could stay out in the field longer, while the rendezvous became their once a year lifeline. The rendezvous became more then just a trading place, it turned into a weeks long festival whereby the trappers would eat, drink, play games, and tell stories. These meetings became a way of life.

Changes In Style
Ashley's involvement with the fur trade was short lived, though his system’s legacy lived on for over a decade. Though he had innovated the rendezvous system, Ashley sold out in 1826. From then on, he turned his attention to politics. Three times he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1830’s. In 1836, he turned away from national politics and attempted to run for Governor of Missouri. He would lose badly, ironically because his pro-business stance happened to be out of vogue at the moment.

In Ashley’s absence, the rendezvous continued to grow. It peaked in the early 1830’s. By the time Ashley passed away in 1838 beaver resources were depleted and a change in style away from beaver fur hats led to the end of the rendezvous. Nonetheless, William Ashley’s innovative business sense had changed the West forever. Now previously remote regions such as Bighorn Canyon were becoming known.

Public Domain Photo

07/26/2022

Lockhart Ranch

Caroline Lockhart owned the Lockhart ranch from 1926 to 1955. The ranch is now one of the Park's historic ranches. Caroline was a headstrong woman who didn’t like to be told what she could and couldn’t do. She grew up in Kansas before moving to the East Coast to finish her schooling. In her early years she was a reporter for the Boston Post and the Philadelphia Bulletin and often took on stories that traditionally only men were allowed to do, such as diving to the bottom of Boston Harbor and jumping out of a fourth-floor window to test the fire department’s new safety nets.

On one occasion she stayed in Cody, Wyoming to write a piece and fell in love with the rugged country. In 1904, Caroline bought a house in Cody and wrote seven novels over the next twenty-nine years using the western atmosphere to inspire her writing. She would often have a female lead in her books, and each had a romantic love interest. Three of her books have been turned into movies: The Dude Wrangler, The Man From Bitter Roots, and The Fighting Shepherdess.

In 1920 Caroline bought the Cody Enterprise. Her journalism was just as popular as her novels, often covering controversial topics such as prohibition. During this time, Caroline also co-founded the Cody Stamped Rodeo with Clarence Williams to commemorate William Cody, whom Caroline had become friends with after moving to Cody. She served as the first board president for the rodeo, and still the only woman to hold the title.

In 1926 she bought 160 acres in the Montana Dryhead. She felt she could fulfill her lifelong dream of being a “cowboy girl” on the western frontier. When she bought the ranch only two buildings existed on the property. She added to it over the years until she had a fully functioning ranch with more than 6,000 acres. She employed ranch hands and a foreman to help her run the ranch, and in 1935 her cattle topped the market in Omaha. Caroline liked to think of herself as the “Cattle Queen”.

Caroline had many suitors throughout her life, though she never married. In one of her many journals, she refers to marriage as “that dreaded state”. She also never had any children. She was truly an unconventional woman in her time.

Miss Lockhart moved back to Cody in 1952, a woman in her 80’s. She sold the ranch shortly after. She wrote “There are no old timers left anymore. I feel the last leaf on the tree.”

Come join our VIPs Mike and Lynn, who provide guided tours of the Lockhart Ranch on the first and third Thursday of every month.

NPS Photo

07/16/2022

Must see...

History of the Pryor Mountain Mustang, Part 1

The Pryor Mountain Horse Range was established in 1968, three years before the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, making it the first of its kind. It currently spans more than 38,000 acres, approximately 20% of which is in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. 140-200 horses live on the range.

In the early 1900's there was great concern that wild horses and burros were overgrazing the rangeland. Conservationists of the time noted increased loss of vegetation and soil erosion in certain high risk areas and thought it may be connected to overgrazing. Government agencies as well as ranchers worked to clear unwanted horses from the landscape in order to prevent further loss.

By the 1960's wild horse advocates became concerned that the number of horses was becoming too low. Velma Bronn Johnston was one of these advocates. Her goal was to establish permanent sanctuaries for mustangs. She lobbied congress and established the non profit group International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB). She later became known as Wild Horse Annie.

In 1964 a the BLM ordered that the horses on the Pryor Mountains be removed. The near by community of Lovell, WY, fearful that the horses would not be cared for after removal, began a campaign against the removal. Bessie Tillett, a local rancher, and her sons, claimed the mustangs as their own. This delayed the removal for two years before the BLM revoked the Tillett's range lease, and any claim they may have on the horses that lived there.

In 1968 the BLM found an alternate means of managing the horses in the Pryors, creating the first refuge that didn't share land with cattle. The refuge was made possible by the collaborative effort of Bessie Tillett and her sons, the community of Lovell, Wyoming, and the ISPMB.

NPS Photo

07/07/2022

The entire Yellowstone Park is OPEN!

07/02/2022

Come stay with us and see just what amazing things Greybull has to offer 😁

06/29/2022

The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite is the largest tracksite in Wyoming and one of only a few worldwide from the Middle Jurassic Period (160 million to 180 million years old). Until the tracks were reported in 1997, most scientists thought the entire Bighorn Basin and most of Wyoming was covered by an ancient ocean called the Sundance Sea. Wyoming Geological Survey

06/22/2022

Oh wow! Look at the lines.

Yellowstone....West, East and South gates are OPEN! Open to even numbered license plates on even numbered days of the month and odd license plates to odd numbered days of the month. Welcome back tourists!