Our next adventure is going to take us into Salt Wells Creek HMA.... SWC borders along our last adventure in Adobe Town and at this moment is not considered an actual HMA by BLM, as per the most recent 2023 RMP [Range Management Plan] it is an HA [Herd Area] and will be managed to a zero wild horse population.

While writing this blog I am going to write as if it is still an HMA... as many of you know there were two lawsuits brought by separate parties (Return to Freedom, AWHC, along with other persons included in each suit) that has been consolidated by the courts for the sake of expediency, challenging the validity of zeroing out Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin while shrinking the size of Adobe Town - at this moment we are waiting on the decision from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and while the odds are not in our favor, hope is a stubborn thing and we hope that this land will not be lost to the horses.

It may seem a bit depressing to plan a trip here, knowing that the horses you meet may be completely and permanently removed, but that is a risk of any wild horse land you visit, and this is an incredible one of a kind place that I hope you experience while there is still time.... and when you go I hope you find the joy that is still there, live in the same way the horses do - aware of what is and what may be, but also reveling in the joy of the moment they are living in.

So off we go!

Salt Wells Creek can no longer be found on the current BLM list of Wyoming HMAs so I had to do a little extra digging to find the basic information of this HMA - thankfully there are many random documents in various places that can be found, I am not sure how much longer that will be true as BLM has been re-arranging document locations, which has resulted in some historical knowledge being lost.

Salt Wells Creek HMA - most often referred to as simply Salt Wells - was originally about 1,173,000 acres... the single largest HMA of Wyoming - to give you some perspective, the Red Desert where I have spent most of my time and yet still do not know even half her secrets, could fit within the HMA of Salt Wells and have room to spare!

The trick with Salt Wells Creek is that a large chunk of this HMA sits in what is called the checkerboard area, where every other square mile is private land, and then the other square mile is BLM publicly owned land.

That discussion is long and should be had as to why and how this occurred, that we have a mix of private and public lands, why is there an HMA here, and why the landowners want the horses permanently removed - but not today.

Salt Wells Creek is several hundred thousand acres of publicly owned lands that were designated for wild horses to roam... and where you get to explore and find your own adventure with these wild horses.

But.... because there is mixed public and private lands, you do need to be aware of where you are and if you are wandering along on public lands - or not!

The horses roam freely, they do not know or care about boundary lines, but you need to because we should be respectful of private property.

Just as an FYI..... in Wyoming it is our responsibility to know if we are trespassing onto private property, property owners are not required to fence or place warning signs on their property line, and if we are caught trespassing by an unfriendly or unforgiving person, they can call law enforcement and press charges - and in Wyoming that can get real expensive real fast for the trespasser.

And even assuming you have deep pockets and don't mind paying the fines... remember, this kind of action reflects on all advocates, trespassing makes us look like bad players, and it does not one good thing for wild horses.

I have been to Salt Wells a handful of times... enough to know it is an incredibly beautiful land with some truly stunning horses, but not enough to know how to get around it all that well!

I have only once or twice explored on my own, I had a great deal of fun on those adventures as the vistas are never-ending and it is just a fun area to drive around and explore, but on my own I never got very close to the wild horses and only had good luck when with others that know the area intimately.

So - for this blog we have a little extra help in exploring the land and finding the horses!

Brenda Myers is a photographer that you can follow on FB under Our Land Images, she hails from several states away, but has an intrepid spirit of adventure and determination to know well the wild horse lands she visits, and she has very generously shared information and maps she has created from her own adventures!

Salt Wells Creek HMA can be accessed in many different ways, that is the good news, the tricky part is knowing which areas the wild horses tend to travel.... with over a million acres to wander they have a lot of options, and it would take us hours to cover even a portion of this land, and possibly not see one single wild horse!!

The northeastern area of the HMA can be accessed most easily from exits off of I80, starting just a few miles west of Tipton Station the HMA runs along the south side of the freeway, all the way into Rock Springs.

Brenda's map (below) has highlighted the same roads I would suggest to take from the freeway - Patrick Draw and Bitter Creek - either of those roads will allow you to drop down and explore all through the HMA, and if you are feeling extra adventurous you could drop into Adobe Town for a little while, because the eastern edge of Salt Wells borders that HMA, as you probably remember from our previous explore blog!

Although the HMA lines do technically run along the freeway, you mostly will not see many (or any) wild horses along the way into town, you also probably want to avoid the industrial locations like the coal mine.

You can also fairly quickly access Salt Wells from the town of Rock Springs, which is great if you are staying in town, you can check into your hotel, grab a bite to eat (Rock Springs has surprisingly good food options for a remote town), and top off your gas tank before hitting the road for that adventure in wild horse territory!

Brenda's map (below) shows you two options highlighted in blue:

1) Little Bitter Creek from the southwestern side of town, although her notes say she did not have any luck finding horses when she traveled that route.

2) Hwy 430 leaving from town and from which you can choose to either hang a right and follow Spotted Tail Road or you can stay on the highway going south.

I have been on the Spotted Tail road only once, but it left such an impression on me! As you climb the mountain it is just incredible, the long vistas that stretch out in front of you! When I visited I enjoyed the company of several horses, but am told that since the more recent roundups the horses do not go there as much, if at all now.

You can also choose to stay on Hwy 430 meandering south through Salt Wells all the way to the southern border of the HMA and then cross from Wyoming into Colorado.

I have taken this drive a few times and have never been disappointed, you can see wild horses along the way, and the landscape is truly one of a kind, to me it is a place of magic with incredible skies and horizons!

And I see from the map Brenda shared with us, that the Patrick Draw and Bitter Creek roads that you can take from I80 eventually join up with Hwy 430, which will allow you to crisscross the HMA without having to back-track, unless you just want to stay on the paved road.

You can also drive the very eastern edge of Salt Wells via Hwy 191, which is also known as the scenic loop around Flaming Gorge, and it is an incredibly beautiful drive!!

Salt Wells Creek HMA runs along the highway from Rock Springs for several miles, and then for a few more miles it stretches along both sides of the highway... as you can see from Brenda's below map, once you begin to pass by the Red Creek Badlands and Little Mountain you have left the HMA - if you keep going it is no longer wild horse lands, but the scenic vistas are amazing and it is a wonderful way to pass a few hours if you want to stay in your cool car on a hot summer day, or maybe take a break by the water.

Or... you can take one of the dirt roads off of the highway and find an adventure of your own looking for wild horses - there is no bad choice to be made here, there is so much to explore and experience in this place!

And now we are at the oddly shaped southeastern pocket of Salt Wells Creek HMA.... if you took Hwy 431 south from Rock Springs down to the Colorado border, you have already driven the border of this area, and hopefully had time to play around on a few of the dirt roads that can always be found along the way!

I have driven Hwy 431 and loved every mile of it, and I remember a few wild horses down closer to the border, so you may find them as you wind your way through what feels like a lonely stretch of land.

I am sharing one last map from Brenda of Salt Wells Creek - she is incredibly talented and dedicated to mapping her routes with notes, I am afraid most of my notes are on the paper Gazetteer book, in my head, or as saved tracks in my OnX Hunt app.

Brenda has clearly spent a great deal of time and effort learning about this HMA, and I very much appreciate her willingness to share with others how to travel this land, and visit with its extraordinary wild horses!

My very first visit to Salt Wells Creek was in 2013 as a roundup observer, it was my first time attending a roundup, and I was so incredibly naive about so many things then!

I returned a year later and was very lucky to connect with a local person that was so incredibly kind to take me to her favorite wild horse places, along with sharing some of the amazing history that exists in this area, both of western settlement, and of a time when the First Nations people knew this land as their land.

I have since returned whenever my travels take me to the area, for work or other things.... some day maybe I will get to explore it the way others have, learning the secrets that a place like this holds for those willing to pause, and listen for the whisper in the winds.

I hope that you are able to go soon... because we do not yet know the answer from the court, we do not know how much time there is left to visit with the wild horses here, so if you can I urge you to go soon, while the hooves of wild horses can still be heard galloping across their wild lands.