Run the Red Desert Trail Races South Pass City, WY   Sep 26, 2026

Originally conceived to honor the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the 30th anniversary of the Wyoming Wilderness Act, Run the Red has become an annual celebration of Wyoming’s Red Desert.
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The Lander Running Club, in partnership with The Wyoming Wilderness Association, invite runners and their families to experience this unique landscape, starting and finishing at South Pass City. The Red Desert contains countless opportunities for enjoying wild spaces, including Wilderness Study Areas, the longest ungulate migration route in the lower 48 states, and more. Run the Red is Wyoming’s most unique ultra-marathon dedicated to conserving the vast, rugged, and historical landscape of the Red Desert. Runners will experience one of the last undeveloped high desert steppe ecosystems in the country while celebrating the importance of maintaining a contiguous desert landscape for Wyoming’s heritage, wildlife, and recreational benefits.

50k
The Run the Red 50k is a point-to-point course, starting at the spectacular Whitehorse Creek Overlook (42.29704757326179, -108.87126786544586), right at the boundary of the dramatic scenery of the Whitehorse Creek Wilderness Study Area. Runners and their crew will need to park on the right side of the Oregon Buttes Road, and then walk the 0.4 miles along a two-track dirt road to the starting line. From the Whitehorse Creek Overlook, runners will traverse across the canyon rim, and then cross a small valley before ascending and looping around Pacific Butte. On Pacific Butte runners will enjoy enormous views of Oregon Buttes, the Wind River Mountains, and vast expanses of the northern Red Desert. After traversing all the way around Pacific Butte, runners will descend to a valley and then properly onto the Oregon National Historic Trail, where they will run up and over the original South Pass. After passing the historical marker (and a couple of headstones!) runners will make their way over to the Sweetwater River where they will cross a small footbridge and a short stretch of water (expect to get feet at least a little bit wet here). After crossing the Sweetwater River, runners will begin the gentle, but steady, climb up towards the craggy Fish Creek granite domes and the Ironhorse Aid Station. Rock hopping through the Fish Creek granite domes will give way to more dirt two-track running before dropping into the Willow Creek Drainage and South Pass City Historic Site. The large Carissa Mine will loom large in the distance, and runners will run past numerous smaller and historic mining sites as they wrap their way around Willow Creek to the finish line in South Pass City.

30k
The Run the Red 25k is a point-to-point course, starting at the spectacular Whitehorse Creek Overlook (42.29704757326179, -108.87126786544586), right at the boundary of the dramatic scenery of the Whitehorse Creek Wilderness Study Area. Runners and their crew will need to park on the right side of the Oregon Buttes Road, and then walk the 0.4 miles along a two-track dirt road to the starting line. From the Whitehorse Creek Overlook, runners will traverse across the canyon rim, and then cut across a valley to the Oregon Buttes County Road. Runners will leave the county road and make their way over to the Sweetwater River where they will cross a small footbridge and a short stretch of water (expect to get feet at least a little bit wet here). After crossing the Sweetwater River, runners will begin the gentle, but steady, climb up towards the craggy Fish Creek granite domes and the Ironhorse Aid Station. Rock hopping through the Fish Creek granite domes will give way to more dirt two-track running before dropping into the Willow Creek Drainage and South Pass City Historic Site. The large Carissa Mine will loom large in the distance, and runners will run past numerous smaller and historic mining sites as they wrap their way around Willow Creek to the finish line in South Pass City.