Area 16 covers the eastern Bighorn Mountains between Buffalo and Story—the side of the range that catches Buffalo's hunting traffic and the Sheridan-area weekend crowd. Elevations run from about 4,500 feet on the foothill grass-and-sage benches to over 12,000 feet on the alpine ridges in the Cloud Peak Wilderness backstop. The east face is dramatic: the Bighorns rise abruptly from the Powder River prairie, and you can see them from 100 miles east on a clear day. The vegetation runs sage and grass on the lower benches, mountain mahogany and ponderosa on the mid-slopes, transitioning into lodgepole and spruce-fir in the timber band, and finally alpine above the trees. Crazy Woman Creek, Clear Creek, and Piney Creek drain the country and feed the Powder River. Bighorn National Forest covers most of it, with BLM, state, and significant private ranch in the foothills. The HMAs here include some of the productive elk-and-deer ranches on the front; check the regs. US-16 over Powder River Pass is the workhorse paved access; forest roads off it climb into the high country. Buffalo and Sheridan are full-service towns—gas, hotels, the Occidental in Buffalo if you want the historic experience. Cell service is fair near towns and gone in the timber. Heavy local pressure during rifle, especially the first couple of days—Buffalo locals know this country cold and they hit it hard. The Cloud Peak Wilderness keeps motors out of the high country which preserves a quality elk experience for those willing to pack in. Quality bulls in the timber, mule deer in the foothill breaks. Snow can shut down Powder River Pass by mid-October.