The Bighorn Basin Quick Facts Located in northwestern Wyoming, the Bighorn Basin is formed by the Bighorn Mountains to the east, the Owl Creek Mountains to the south, and the Absaroka Mountains to the west. The Bighorn Basin is vast, larger than Connecticut and Delaware combined.
Irrigated communities create small corridors of greenery in the arid badlands.
Archaeological evidence indicates human habitation of the Basin goes back 10,000 years. The Goose Egg Anticline. Difficult terrain made the Basin one of the last parts of Wyoming to be settled. Summits in the Bighorn Mountains and the Absaroka Mountains extend over 13,000 feet. John Colter came through the area in 1807.