Area 19 covers the Bighorn foothills and prairie country in the Big Horn-Sheridan area between the mountain front and the Powder River drainage. Elevations run from about 3,800 feet on the prairie to 9,000 feet on the higher timbered ridges of the Bighorns' eastern margin. Most of the unit is foothill country—rolling sage prairie, hayed irrigated bottoms along Goose Creek, Tongue River, and Little Goose, and timbered ridges where ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and mountain mahogany hold the cooler aspects. The Tongue River and Goose Creek bottoms run cottonwoods and willows, and the deep coulees cut into the prairie carry chokecherry and serviceberry that whitetail love. The land ownership is the central problem—mostly private with scattered BLM and state. The big private ranches dominate, and Wyoming's Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In programs are the difference between hunting and not hunting. The HMAs in this country open meaningful chunks of private to permitted hunters; call WGFD's Sheridan office and read the booklet carefully before the season. US-87 frames the east; I-90 cuts the north; county roads thread the rest. Sheridan and Buffalo are full-service—Sheridan has gas stations, hotels, decent grocery, and the Mint Bar if you want history. Cell service is fair near towns. Whitetail dominate the river bottoms and irrigated fields, mule deer use the foothill breaks, antelope work the open prairie. The wind off the Bighorns is constant; it's also why you can glass for miles.