The Bighorn Crew welcomes you with western hospitality and extends its most cordial invitation to a remote, rugged test of your endurance. Located in the beautiful Bighorn Mountains just outside of Dayton, WY, 4 distances are offered over 2 days.
The Bighorn Trail 100, 52M, 32M and 18M races largely continue at this time as a public service by trail running enthusiasts and volunteers in the Sheridan community to promote recreation and tourism in Sheridan County. The courses are designed to maximize the exposure of the participants, their families, and race volunteers to an extremely scenic, wild, and primitive area of our geologically unique Bighorn Mountains.
We created this ultra-running event to preserve the atmosphere of the Bighorn Mountains once threatened by a West Coast power development strategy called the “Dry Fork Project”. Through the commitment and perseverance of a few dedicated outdoor enthusiasts, attention to the potential fate of our mountains became a local concern. Ultimately, the “Dry Fork Project” was tabled and Bighorn Trail Run was born during this process to increase public awareness of the natural beauty, rugged terrain, and unique geology of the Bighorn Mountains and the Dry Fork and Little Bighorn River drainages.
The Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic Trail Run is founded on values and beliefs that knit us together as a family. We provide a multi-event experience created by a community for a community, meeting everyone’s desire for challenge. We value family, friendships, thoughtfulness, hard work, consistency and nature’s beauty – all the essentials required to get you to the finish line. However, don’t let Bighorn mislead you, it is a tough contender in the ultra-world boasting its name on the top 10 most difficult ultras in the nation. We met with Mother Nature to custom design a challenging course: full of steep climbs, difficult down hills, shoe sucking mud, and relentless technical terrain leading you to spectacular views with a possible wildlife encounter here or there. Participants, be prepared to endure extreme ever-changing mountain weather conditions and temperature variations. This runner’s trail is the showcase of the human spirit.
Our commitment to you: During your time in our beautiful backyard, we commit to providing a team of tough and rugged individuals supporting you. Consider these experienced volunteers your trail family. With their commitment to lifting up a fellow human they provide well-stocked aid stations, first aid, and a fun atmosphere. Be aware however, much like you, these volunteers also endure sleep deprivation and harsh mountain conditions. Show them your appreciation and don’t be surprised when they encourage you to pull up your bootstraps so you can head on down the trail to claim your finish. After all, it did seem like a good idea during the winter sign-ups. Yeehaw!
The Bighorn Mountain Trail 100 is an epic mountain endurance adventure crossing through Little Bighorn and Tongue River areas of the Bighorn National Forest. Participants have 34 hours to navigate this remote, technical out-and-back course (average 2.94 mph). Mother Nature provides over 20,500 feet of ascent and 20,750 feet of descent testing the most seasoned ultra-runners with 76 miles of technical single-track trail, 16 miles of rugged 2-track jeep trail road, and 8 miles of gravel road. The Bighorn 100 is one of the classics, demanding you to reach deep down to your core of mental and physical fortitude.
The event is truly remote. Stretches of 18-mile technical trail will serve as your only way in and out of the backcountry. Have no fear; we have a family of trail crew volunteers that are crazier than you. They’ve been on the trail for weeks leading up to this event preparing the trails for the adversity you are about to experience.
This is not a mountaineering experience and we pride ourselves on a well-marked course. Trail markings will consist of orange flagging tape frequently attached to trees, bushes, rocks, rattlesnakes, and black bear (haha just making sure you are paying attention). In meadow areas, orange flagging will be attached to wire ground flags. White powder arrows (made from lime) will be used at a few junctions on the course. Reflective tape attached to the flagging and glow sticks will be used to enhance visualization during the night sections of the course (Kern’s Cow Camp – Jaws Trail Head). However, despite the best efforts of race management, occasionally the elk have other plans in mind for you and have been known to devour the markings on sections of this course within 48 hours of placement. Our course director and trail team work endlessly to replace flagging during the event.
We are guests in God’s country so expect to share this course with elk, deer, moose, black bear, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes in the lower elevations.
The course requires ultimate individual preparation. Remember you have committed to an extreme mountain endurance event in the Wild West and crew access points are limited. Our aid station volunteers are experienced and will do their best to help each runner, however responsibility falls on participants and it is imperative each runner is adequately prepared for this challenging quest. Please study the course and plan to carry the necessary equipment to ensure your safety and the safety of our volunteers.
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I’d DNF it again!! 😉
Absolutely breathtaking course. Even though I missed the cutoff at mile 34 and wasn’t able to finish I am the most proud of this race. It was HARD! It has … MORE
Absolutely breathtaking course. Even though I missed the cutoff at mile 34 and wasn’t able to finish I am the most proud of this race. It was HARD! It has very strict cut off times, which probably shouldn’t have been my chosen first 50 miler! A kind of hard you don’t understand until you’re immersed in it. I was absolutely under trained for this race. I would love to go back and do it again.
MUD!!
This last years race was beautiful, but we ran through miles and miles of mud! The aid stations were amazing and all the people that hiked and camped to get … MORE
This last years race was beautiful, but we ran through miles and miles of mud! The aid stations were amazing and all the people that hiked and camped to get to the more remote stations were fabulous. This was definitely a challenge but so worth it. I do have to say the town of Dayton did not have much in terms of finding a pre-race supper so if you plan on doing this race, you may want to get something in Sheridan or cook your own.
Beautiful course, death by downhill 50K
I can't speak for what I'm told are the excellent 50-mile and 100-mile vintages of the Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic Trail run, but I ran the 50K in 2014 … MORE
I can’t speak for what I’m told are the excellent 50-mile and 100-mile vintages of the Bighorn Mountain Wild and Scenic Trail run, but I ran the 50K in 2014 and it beat me up pretty good. This was the first race I ran that ended at a significantly lower elevation than where it started (7500′ elevation at the start vs 3500′ elevation at the finish), and my quads were barking by the end of the race.
The course is breathtaking, running up and down mountains, through hills and fields and forests, and finishing with a long stretch of mileage run alongside a roaring river. The uphill power climbs were truly grueling, and the long stretches of downhill running were positively quad-busting. It was an incredible experience, on a course that I’d like to tackle again some day in the future. Aid stations came every 4-8 miles, and I would definitely recommend running with a hydration pack.
The post-race spread featured LOTS of hot food, located at a park that was conveniently situated next to the aforementioned river, which felt positively heavenly when I waded in for a post-race dip. I was a bit disappointed that there was no finisher’s medal for the 50K, but all finishers were given long-sleeved finisher’s t-shirts that were race-specific to each distance, so it was kind of like a wearable medal. This was in addition to the fetching Salomon race shirts that we’d already received, along with a Salomon insulated lunch bag and reusable ice pack. Finally, race registration included a complimentary breakfast the following morning, which was most welcome on our way out of town.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’d like to come back in the future to take another stab at this course, maybe the 50-miler.
Beautiful, quad-busting downhill trail
I'm sure if I had trained appropriately for this race and done some real downhill trail running, I wouldn't have melted down in such spectacular fashion. But I didn't train … MORE
I’m sure if I had trained appropriately for this race and done some real downhill trail running, I wouldn’t have melted down in such spectacular fashion. But I didn’t train and instead slogged through this race unceremoniously for about 3/4 of it. However, it was definitely gorgeous, well organized and extremely well-marked. The weather was perfect, the aid stations stocked with all kinds of delicious, energy-packed foods, and though I bemoaned the lack of a medal, the light hooded long-sleeve they gave to finishers is one of my favorite shirts.