(soft music) - It's humbling.

You feel small.

When I'm out here, I feel at peace.

Everything slows down, and it's just quiet and calm.

- I think that if you come into Bighorn Canyon and you spend any amount of time, there's something about it that just grabs a hold of you.

(adventurous music) (air whooshing) (gentle music) - [Narrator] Straddling the border between Wyoming and Montana, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is a quiet and sometimes overlooked destination.

Though most patrons visit the park for its boating opportunities, the intrepid visitor exploring the canyon rim is rewarded with stunning views, historical discovery, and memorable day hikes.

Park rangers David Moore and Kristy Fleming take us on a tour and show us the wonders of Bighorn Canyon.

(gentle music continues) - Welcome to Devil Canyon Overlook.

This is one of the most popular spots in the park.

It's very easily accessible and it has beautiful views.

I think that this is an awesome spot, 'cause you really have that bend that goes through right here, and you can kinda really see how it curves around.

You know, I think it's just a great spot.

(soft music) All this is happening from erosion.

The wind, the weather that's going on, the amount of rain, that's gonna determine how that water's gonna flow and how it's gonna eat out what it eats out.

It used to be a river.

It used to be the Bighorn River, then it was damned, so now it's a lake.

(soft music continues) So this over here, this is the Madison Limestone.

It's typically not red, but it's red here because of the iron oxide runoff.

It's almost like rusting the actual Madison Limestone.

(soft music continues) When you know how the canyon was created, you can kind of almost reverse engineer it.

You know how it was created and what it needs to really survive.

- [Narrator] Beyond the wonders of the canyon's natural history lies the secrets of the area's human history.

The Two Eagles Interpretive Trail provides a glimpse into the world of the people who traveled through the area 10,000 years ago.

- When people traveled through this area, they would put up their tepees, and then on the outside of the tepees, they would put rocks to hold it down.

The teepee rings are what are left after the teepee has been pulled up.

From this location towards the canyon, and from here, behind me, is a big area that has over 100 teepee rings in it.

In this area, there's this two-track road.

When the power lines were first put in, the power company didn't know that they were driving through an archeological site, but you can still see it today.

So, we just wanna be very careful that we don't continue to destroy, that we continue to preserve this area so that future generations can learn from this site.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Bighorn Canyon not only holds relics of early human history, but also of the settlers in the 1900s.

One of those settlers was Caroline Lockhart, whose 6,000-acre ranch was bought by the Park Service in the 1950s.

- Caroline moved out here to be a homesteader.

She moved out here for the beauty of the land and she really fell in love with it.

So, after she purchased the land, she continued to expand to over 6,000 acres, and, you know, she added over 15 different structures to the area as well.

Caroline was known for being a rugged and gritty type of person.

She had that larger-than-life personality that really enabled her to survive and thrive out here in the open country in Wyoming.

I love coming down to the Lockhart Ranch because it's a beautiful area.

It really is kind of a...

It's a break in the rest of the canyon, given the fact that, you know, you have all the cottonwood trees around you.

You have the Indian paintbrushes, all the sagebrush that's out here.

You have the beautiful apple orchard.

It's a nice spot just to hang out and relax.

- [Narrator] Bighorn Canyon serves as the backdrop to stories of those who have come long before us, but it's also a place for visitors of today to become a part of that history.

The network of trails throughout the park wind through memorable landscapes and vistas.

- So here we are at Sullivan's Knob.

It's probably one of the favorite hikes for our visitors, but also one of our favorite hikes for all the park rangers.

I think if you talk to anybody, they would send you on this trail.

(soft music) Even though I've worked here for 24 years, every time I come out here, I see something new, because of the way that the clouds are one day, or the way the colors come up.

Every day is something different.

And even though I've been here a long time, I find new things and learn new things all the time about the canyon.

- Just the humbling experience of just feeling so small in such a large space.

Like, that's the biggest thing for me.

- [Narrator] Bighorn Canyon rewards its visitors with a unique beauty and a rich history.

The spectacular landscapes and remnants of the past provide a setting to reflect on the world as it was before us and the world that we'll leave behind for generations to come.