Big Muddy Badlands

The Big Muddy Valley runs about fifty-five kilometres of eroded sandstone and clay near the Montana line, with Castle Butte, a free-standing formation about sixty metres high, as its landmark. Its reputation comes from the 1890s, when horse thieves and rustlers used the caves and coulees as the northern end of a chain of hideouts running down to Mexico; Butch Cassidy is said to have known the area, though the evidence is thin. Sam Kelly's cave and a Dutch Henry hideout are on the tour route. The valley also holds ceremonial stone effigies built by Plains nations, including a turtle figure.

The landscape

• Castle Butte - a sixty-metre free-standing sandstone formation.
• The outlaw caves - hideouts used by horse thieves in the 1890s.
• The stone effigies - ceremonial boulder figures built by Plains nations.
• The eroded valley - fifty-five kilometres of badlands near the border.

When to go

May to September; tours from Coronach run in that window and most sites are on private land requiring a guide. Roads turn to impassable gumbo after rain.

What to expect

Most of the valley is private and the sites require a booked guided tour. Roads are clay and become undrivable when wet. The outlaw stories are local tradition more than documented history.

Nearby

Coronach is the tour base; Moose Jaw lies north.

Key facts