Sheridan

We rolled into Sheridan on Interstate 90 with the Bighorn Mountains rising abruptly to the west, a wall of granite and pine that seems to appear out of nowhere on the plains. Main Street runs wide and straight, lined with brick storefronts from the early 1900s, pickup trucks parked at an angle in front of the Mint Bar, whose neon sign has been glowing over the sidewalk since the 1940s. Lia and I had barely found parking when a line of cattle, driven by riders on horseback, ambled straight down the middle of the street past us — not a show for tourists, just a rancher moving his herd the old way, traffic simply waiting it out.

The Mint Bar and Main Street

That evening we ducked into the Mint Bar itself, its walls papered floor to ceiling in old branding irons and cattle brands collected over decades, a bar that has quietly hosted everyone from ranch hands to visiting dignitaries since Prohibition ended. Sheridan’s Main Street has resisted the tourist-trap gloss that’s crept into some Western towns; the boot shop sells boots people actually wear to work, the saddlery still makes saddles. We ate bison burgers at a diner counter next to actual working cowboys still in chaps, and nobody looked twice at either group.

Into the Bighorns

The next morning we drove up into the Bighorn National Forest on Highway 14, the road switch backing through pine forest until it broke out above the treeline into open alpine tundra, snow lingering in shaded pockets even in July. We stopped at Burgess Junction and hiked a short trail out to a ridge with views back down over the entire basin Sheridan sits in, wheat-colored plains running flat to a horizon that seemed to bend with the curve of the earth. On the way back down we passed the turnoff for the Medicine Wheel, a stone monument built by Indigenous peoples centuries ago and still used for ceremony today, a reminder that this landscape’s human history runs far deeper than the ranching era its Main Street celebrates.

Getting There

Sheridan County Airport offers limited commercial service, but most visitors fly into Billings, Montana, about two hours north, or Denver, roughly six hours south by car. Interstate 90 runs directly through Sheridan, making it a natural stop for anyone driving between Yellowstone and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Downtown is easily walkable once you’ve arrived, but a car is essential for reaching the Bighorn Mountains and the surrounding ranch country that gives the town its character.