Of the three scenic highways through the Bighorn Mountains , US-14A from Burgess Junction , fifty miles west of Victorian Sheridan , is the most spectacular. The massive and heavily wooded Bighorns soar abruptly from the plains to over 9000ft; the loftiest peaks, protruding above the timberline, seem bald beside their dark-coated neighbors. The road edges its way up Medicine Mountain , on whose windswept western peak the mysterious Medicine Wheel - the largest such monument still intact - stands protected behind a wire fence. Local Native American legends offer no clues as to the original purpose of these flat stones, arranged in a circular "wheel" shape with 28 spokes and a circumference of 245ft - though the pattern suggests sun-worship or early astronomy. To get there, you'll have to drive along a precipitous dirt track (past an incongruous radar dome) to within a mile of the site and hike the rest of the way. Even if US-14A isn't closed by snow (usually Nov-May), or even if the Medicine Wheel isn't being used by local Native Americans for religious ceremonies, you might still find the dirt track impassable due to bad weather.

The route down the west side, with gradients of ten to twenty percent and three awesome runaway truck ramps, is said to have cost more to build per mile than any other road in America. Tight hairpin bends will keep the driver's eyes off the magnificent overlooks, but the best view comes near the bottom, when the road lets you out into the Bighorn Basin . This ultra-flat, sparsely vegetated valley, walled in by mighty mountains on three sides and ragged foothills to the north, can strike you as a land that time forgot.

Bighorn Mountains

• Bighorn Mountains

Explore Bighorn Mountains

• Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area

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