Sykes Arch

Quick Stats:

5.77 miles round-trip

1,285 foot elevation gain 

Difficulty: strenuous

    Location:  Google Maps Location

Bighorn Canyon, Montana

In August of 2025 my husband and I went to Lovell to boat the Bighorn Reservoir.  I searched online for arches in the area so that while we were in the area we could hike to a new arch.  I found one post about a mysterious arch called Sykes Arch.  It is unfortunate that there are not more posts about this arch because it is beautiful, and achieving the 5.77 mile strenuous hike includes a fantastic reward at the end!  Our hike was exactly 3 miles from our car to the arch.  But if we were to do it again, now that we know where we're going, we could cut off about a quarter mile of that.

One thing that I really love about Europe is that they make beautiful things like this arch accessible to everyone.  So many people are out enjoying the beautiful earth because 1) they know what is out there, and 2) it has been made possible to reach and experience the beautiful sites through marked and maintained trails, bridges, etc.  If this arch were in Europe, a trail would have been made and people would know about it.  The attitude we have in the US, and perhaps Wyoming in particular, is that we need to keep beautiful places like this hidden so that we protect them from people who would harm them.  I can tell you for sure that the type of person who would damage this arch or any others like it, are not the kind of people who would go through the great effort to get there!  I hope that someday there will be a marked trail to this arch so that more people can enjoy how beautiful it is.  Having said that, now that I have been there I could easily find it again.  So, I definitely recommend going on this adventure -- follow the directions that I give you so that you can find it, allow at least 3 hours, bring plenty of water, wear long pants so that you don't get too scratched up by all of the bushes, and enjoy being out in nature searching for a beautiful destination!

I printed off the directions to the arch that I found online so that I had both directions and photos.  We also went into the Bighorn Canyon visitor center to ask for directions.  One of the employees printed a map for me and drew basic directions on it.  She also described several things that would help in finding the arch.  She cautioned that there may be mountain lions, wild horses, mountain sheep, and even bears in the area.  Below is the map that she drew for me.  We could not have found the arch without both of these important items.  The map was not very detailed, but gave us a great overview, and the directions and photos were so helpful most of the time, but there was one point where we almost made a very drastic wrong turn because we didn't understand what the directions and photo were implying.  Together, we were finally able to locate the arch.  If only there'd been an official trail with markers!  Maybe someday!

The circle in the upper left is the arch.  The black line that she drew is the basic route we would take.  The line starts at highway 37 where we would park

With these navigation helps in hand, off we went.  We drove out highway 37 almost as far as the Devil's Canyon Overlook on the right, but watched for a dirt road on the left side of the road about .2 miles before the Devil's Canyon Overlook road.

There are power lines crossing over the road and you'll be able to see where cars have parked on the gravel on the left side of highway 37.  It is just past a cattleguard on the highway.

The cattle guard you cross before parking - this photo is looking back at the cattle guard after we had parked

The map from the visitor center and the online directions were not the same.  You can either follow the dirt road or go cross country toward the canyon.  There is no trail to this arch - it is a route through a canyon and then up another canyon, and there are lots of horse trails you can follow (with lots of horse droppings!) but there are no markings, no cairns, no obvious trails that will take you to the arch.  The arch is definitely worth the effort it takes to get there (over 5 miles of an intense hike).  

The canyon on the far right of this photo is where you are headed, so choose your route to enter this canyon.  We stayed on the road until we dropped down into the drainage.  On our way back we skipped that part completely and went cross-country through the brush.  If we went back again we could easily make our way into the canyon directly from the car.  That shortens the hike quite a bit.

We followed this trail until it dropped down into the drainage.  The red dirt area on the left side of this photo is where we hiked out on our way back.  If you head straight for that red dirt area you'll cut off a lot of distance and drop into the drainage after that.

The canyon is in the center of this photo

This part of the trail is very easy to follow, although unnecessary.  If we were to go back again we would skip most of this trail and just head straight across through the brush to the canyon.

We finally decided to leave the trail and take off across this flatland towards the canyon

Then we started hiking through the canyon

We encountered an unreal amount of horse droppings on the trail.  By the end I wasn't even trying to avoid them anymore - just walking right through them.

A lot of the time the wild horse trails are obvious and easy to follow, as in this photo

There are a lot of caves along the trail

another cave

This is one of my favorite parts of the hike - these stone "stairs" made by nature

Any time that the wild horse trails separate you have to decide which one takes you through the canyon the easiest, and doesn't take you off course. You're going through one very long canyon, and then you're turning and climbing through a second canyon.  Keep the mountain on your right as you progress through the canyon.

When you hit a very large open grassland, turn to the right (north) and head towards these mountains.  You'll see a two-track.  Head to the two-track and start following it until you reach the guzzler, or water catchment for the wild horses.  

When I reached the two-track I put this cairn on the edge of it so that I'd remember on the way back where to leave the road and head back to the other canyon.  I never did come across the cairn again on the way back, though, because we left the two track early and headed into the canyon right away.

We were joined on the hike by a wild horse

The horse was aware that we were there but wasn't bothered at all by us.  On the way back he was drinking from the water catchment and I sat on the fence to empty rocks and dirt out of my shoes, only a few feet away from the horse, and he wasn't at all affected by me being there.

Heading toward the guzzler

After the guzzler we started up the next canyon heading north.  We kept seeing rocks that we wondered if it was the arch, but the arch is nearly a mile after the guzzler.  Continue walking up the canyon as the sides get higher and it gets steeper.  Keep close to the cliffs on your left. This is where the printed directions that I'd found online became confusing and we almost went the wrong way.  Stay hiking up this canyon until you find the arch, and stay close to the cliffs on the left.

It becomes harder to follow the wild horse trails, and you might have to switch back and forth to different trails to find one that works best for you.

We almost left the trail to hike up to this rock thinking it might have the arch in it, but luckily we didn't because that would have been an unnecessary detour

This was another large rocky area that we wondered might be the arch -- it is not -- stay on the steep narrow canyon route

The online directions made me think we were supposed to go over this mountain on the left.  Definitely do not do that!  Keep continuing forward and keep these mountains on your left as you climb up the canyon.

The park ranger told us that we wouldn't be able to see the arch until we went around the very last corner, and she was right.  We came very close to turning around because we thought we'd made a wrong turn.  But we decided to stick with it for a few more minutes, and suddenly, there was the arch!

We kept wondering if we'd found the rock with the arch -- no luck.  We literally did not find it until the very last minute.

We were joined by some bighorn sheep on our hike, about a dozen of them.  They left us alone, and we left them alone.

When you see this rock you know you are close!  That is not the arch, it is a little cave in the rock.  But the arch is right after this rock.

It is very rugged and definitely difficult finding your way up the canyon -- we literally climbed through bushes and sometimes had to backtrack and try a different way.  But don't give up -- you're almost there!

This was my first sight of the arch!  You can see a tiny opening in the rock right in the center of this photo.  That is the arch!!!

As we continued walking we could see the opening become larger and larger

There is no easy way to the arch.  We continued in the canyon until we were right across from it, and then climbed up underneath it.  It is very steep and there's a lot of loose rock.  It was not an easy climb.

As we continued, the opening came into view more and more!

Excellent view of the arch

When I sat down under the arch my mileage tracker hit 3 miles exactly.  On the way back we were able to shorten our hike to nearly 2.5 miles.

The loose rocks are very hard to climb up at such a steep grade.  Be careful not to slide back down the mountain.

My husband next to the arch

The beautiful view of the valley on the way up to the arch - you can't see this view from inside the arch.  Like I said, you can't see the arch until you're right at it, so up inside it there isn't this view of the valley.

This is the view from inside the arch, looking out towards the right

The right side of the arch, while sitting under it

Inside the arch

photos while sitting under the arch

inside the arch

view of the valley below the arch, looking towards the left

This is a view from inside the arch.  You can see a horse trail on the opposite side of the canyon.  This trail is much easier to follow, if you decide you just want to view the arch rather than climb under it.

My husband shot this photo of me sitting under the arch

I was pretty exhausted after climbing up that steep mountain through the loose rocks

My husband and I under the arch

On the way back down the mountain I caught one more photo of Sykes Arch

And a selfie with my husband

or two...

And then it started disappearing from view

you can still see the opening in the arch

You can see the opening better now, although not sky through it, so it would be easy to miss that it's an arch

The very long opening is obvious in this photo even though hardly any sky is showing

climbing back down the steep canyon

Just find your easiest way back down the canyon

We arrived back at the guzzler and found the wild horse there waiting for us

From the Guzzler we headed back on the two track looking for the wide open grassland

The sun was starting to go down, and we didn't want to be hiking in the dark on a non-existent trail

We didn't make it back to the cairn that I left, we headed across the field early and found the canyon horse trails again

Back through the horse droppings again!

back to my favorite part of the hike -- the stone stairs

climbing back through boulders -- we actually found a lost cell phone between some of the boulders on the hike.  We took it to the Bighorn Canyon visitor center the next day.

They were probably climbing over the boulders and trying to make it through the canyon without realizing the phone had fallen out of their pocket, and then it would have been nearly impossible to trace their steps and locate the phone once they realized it was missing.  It was strictly by chance that my husband saw it lodged between the boulders.

On the way back down we saw this small arch that we hadn't noticed on the way up because of the angle when we were hiking up the canyon.  I don't know what the name of this arch is, so for now I'll call it Little Sykes Arch

one of the many caves on the hike

more caves

We left the drainage early to take this horse trail up to the grasslands and it cut almost a quarter mile off our hike

We climbed through this red dirt and were able to easily find the large trail and our way back to the car

If we did the hike again we would just head straight for this red spot and cut a lot of time off our hike

This is looking back at the red dirt area that we climbed through on our way back

When you see the power lines you know you are close to where you parked.

Back to our car!

This is when we sat under the arch -- two hours and 3 miles in

This is where the arch is

This is the point that we left our previous trail for a shortcut.  I had been following our navigation from the hike up and most of the time we retraced our steps exactly, although not always.

It cut a great amount of distance off the hike to leave the drainage

Our total stats -- 5.77 miles and 3 hours and 45 minutes

The arch is at the top and our parking spot is the red dot

I marked my parking at the arch -- the "you parked here" is where the arch is

I submitted the place to Google Maps and they accepted the edit -- now Sykes Arch is on google maps

The satelite view of our hike

This is as far as I could zoom in on the arch.  All the red zigzags are me climbing up and climbing back down to reach the arch.  Of course you can't tell it's an arch from this satellite view.

Our elevation gain

In this photo from Google Maps you actually can tell that it's an arch

If you use my location on google maps:  Sykes Arch Location don't use it for directions, because obviously you can't drive a car there and Google Maps will have no idea where the route goes.  But you could pull up the location of the arch on Google Maps before you start your hike, and then watch as you get closer and closer to it throughout the hike.  There is not a lot of cell service out there, but I did have cell service at the arch and several other times along the hike.

This is not an easy hike, but it is definitely do-able, and I am really glad that I did do it.  I encourage you to try it too!  Enjoy exploring until you reach a beautiful destination!