The drive starts in Sundance, and leads into the Bear Lodge Mountains. The highway climbs into grassy hills dotted with scattered oak groves and a few ponderosa pines. The road passes through rolling country with good views of the Bear Lodge Mountains to the northeast and the Powder River Basin to the west.
Pines tend to cover the ridges, while hay fields and pastures blanket the valleys.
The first view of distant Devils Tower appears from a ridge top about 12 miles into the drive. Its otherworldly appearance is unmistakable. It was always a well-known landmark, but became famous and much more heavily visited after the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind popularized it. The drive starts in Sundance, at the junction of I-90 and US 14. Whether you want to partake of the foliage in an active way or simply watch the plentiful scarlet gilia flower metamorphis from a vibrant summer red to a fall white color - there's plenty to do and see here in autumn.