Beartooth Butte, on the southwest edge of the
Beartooth Mountains. Shoshone National Forest
© Ralph Maughan
Shoshone National Forest
The Shoshone National Forest was one of the first national forests established. It was created by presidential order in 1891 as the Yellowstone Timber Reserve. It is a large national forest (2,466,586 acres), and it is one of the most pristine with over 75% of its acreage designated Wilderness area by Congress (or in some fashion retaining its original roadless condition.). There are four designated Wilderness areas, all of them in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem:
The first two are in the Absaroka Range and the last two in the Wind River Range.
The forest as a whole lies directly east of Yellowstone National Park, except for its southern portion which includes the east slope of the Wind River Mountains, which is SE of Yellowstone.
Much of the Shoshone consists of the vast Absaroka range
of Wyoming, a vast eroded landscape of high volcanic mountains and plateaus.
Most of the rest of the Shoshone is the Wind River Range, a quite different
granitic range and the highest mountains in Wyoming, capped by Gannett
Peak. The Shoshone also includes the southern margin of the Beartooth
Mountains, most of which are in Montana. The Wyoming portion, however,
is seen by many people because a good portion of the famous Beartooth Highway
(US 212) passes through.
Beartooth Butte, on the southwest edge of the
Beartooth Mountains. Shoshone National Forest
© Ralph Maughan
This national forest retains essentially all of the original wildlife present when European settled the area, including: black bear, grizzly bear, wolves, coyotes, fox, bobcat, mountain lion, deer, elk, moose, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and numerous raptors.
The forest is administered from its headquarters (supervisors office) in Cody and five ranger districts:
Revised last on January 22, 1998