The Red Desert of southern Wyoming is one of the last high-desert ecosystems in North America. Its varied landscape of buttes, dunes, sagebrush steppe, mountains and rocky pinnacles is home to some of the continents most hidden treasures: the largest living dune system in the United States, the largest migratory herd of pronghorn in the lower 48 states, the world's largest herd of desert elk nd, at its heart, the Great Divide Basin--a large depression along the Continental Divide from which surface water does not flow out to either the Atlantic or the Pacific.

Nothing says Wyoming like big, open sagebrush country. Wyoming’s desert basins sweep across one-third of the state. These landscapes contain some of the largest expanses of sagebrush remaining in the western United States. These are harsh lands of severe weather, high elevations, vast spaces and few trees.

Because desert basins cover gently rolling sagebrush rangeland, it’s easy to fall into a false sense that this is an empty or biologically-dull place. In fact, two thirds of the rare plants native to Wyoming are found here.

A desert in Wyoming? Many people are surprised that Wyoming is home to a desert. In fact, these are the driest areas in the state. Precipitation is typically 6-10” a year (areas with less than 10” of rainfall annually are considered deserts). The weather here is extreme. Temperatures range from bitter cold to extremely hot in the summer, with freezing possible anytime of year.

Desert basins are home to a wide variety of plants and animals that eek out a life in this high, dry country. Neotropical migrant birds, rare plants, several rare or endangered fish species, sage grouse, and pronghorn have adapted to living in a harsh land.

n this dry country, water imposes strong limits. Running throughout the desert basins, however, are arteries of life-blood in the form of riparian corridors. Fed by hundreds of small streams, these waterways are a surprise in the dry desert. Vegetated by several cottonwood species, willow and alder thickets, and occasionally boxelder, these corridors provide abundant food, physical shelter, and life-giving water to dozens of species of wildlife and neotropical migrant birds. An outstanding feature of Wyoming’s desert basins are long, linear ridges of sand dunes, some running 100 miles or more. The dunes may be either actively moving as winds deposit and rearrange the sand, or stabilized by the growth of plants. Ponds frequently occur between the dunes. Plant life on the dunes may be quite specific to these harsh locations and may include blowout grass, Indian ricegrass, sandhillmuhly and others.