Tag: Bighorn Canyon

Bighorn Canyon NRA: Lockhart Ranch

On By nationalparkswithtIn Wyoming4 Comments
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Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area➤

While staying in Cody, Wyoming, we took a day trip East to visit Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Bighorn Canyon straddles southern Montana and Northeastern Wyoming. The park is characterized by its vast canyons, rugged landscapes, and the Bighorn River, which flows through the area. The canyon itself stretches over 120 miles, making it one of the longest and most impressive in the United States. The Fort Smith, Montana and Lovell, Wyoming sections of the park do not connect. We spent the day exploring from the Lovell entrance, including the Lockhart Ranch. We stopped at the visitor center in Lovell before continuing a few miles up the road into the park.

Lockhart Ranch➤

Continuing North on the park road from Barry’s Landing, we left the asphalt behind for a dirt road. We stopped at the Lockhart Ranch and walked down to the buildings, reading the signs along the way.

In the 1920s, notable author and journalist Caroline Lockhart established this ranch in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin. Lockhart’s career began as a journalist in Boston and Philadelphia, where she wrote articles focusing on the West. She later became a successful novelist, depicting the rugged life and characters of the region in her popular early 20th-century books. Infatuated with the West, she move to Wyoming in the 1920s.

After a few years in Wyoming, Lockhart decided to go into ranching. An unusual pursuit for an unmarried woman, but she’d already broken barriers as a female journalist and novelist. Her success as a writer also provided her with a measure of autonomy and financial independence.

She purchased the property in 1926, transforming it into a thriving cattle ranch with various buildings, irrigation systems, and essential infrastructure. After Lockhart’s death in 1962, the ranch changed hands several times before being acquired by the National Park Service in 1968, becoming part of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

Bighorn Canyon NRA Posts➤

Location: Canyon Overlook Road, Montana
Designation: National Recreation Area
Date designated/established: October 15, 1966
Date of my visit: September 26, 2023