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The desert is a lot like beer
By Jack Smith
“The desert is a lot like beer; it’s an acquired taste.” That’s what a friend of mine told me some years ago. I think he may have been onto something. However, these northern cold desert areas of Wyoming are neither a smooth lager nor an easy-drinking American pilsner. Rather, I seem to be continually thinking of a bitter pale ale as I sit on the cracked gray clay sipping warm water from my water bottle. It is a hot day in early June and I am in the middle of the Honeycombs wildlands in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. Although I am only 20 miles from the city of Worland, I feel I could be a thousand miles or a hundred and fifty years away from any western population center.
The Honeycombs have been an area of mystery since humans first ventured into their maze of mudstone badlands and gullies thousands of years ago. These rugged badlands have long represented one of the last vestiges of a vanishing Wyoming Basins wildness. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recognized that wildness when it established the 21,000-acre Honeycombs Wilderness Study Area in 1991.
These wildlands are certainly an area of extremes. Temperatures can vary from 105 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to minus 50 degrees in the winter. Although precipitation bounces around a typical eight inches per year, intense summer thunderstorms carry sagebrush corpses, pronghorn antelope bones, and tons of fine sediment down to the Big Horn River. These dramatic precipitation events also create new hoodoos, destroy old hoodoos, and bring ancient mammalian fossils to the light of day.
The Honeycombs are truly a wilderness with a small “w.” And this wilderness encompasses much more than the current wilderness study area. Subsequent assessments identified four contiguous areas with an additional 38,700 acres of wilderness-quality lands. A Honeycombs wildland unit of almost 60,000 acres is a sizeable chunk of possible northern cold desert badlands and basin wilderness.
Unfortunately, the Honeycombs are probably one of the most endangered wildlands in the nation. I won’t try to kid myself or anyone else; there is little chance their wilderness characteristics will survive in today’s motorized, fossil-fuel-hungry world. Even today, there is pending federal “wilderness” legislation, the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative Act, that would eliminate the Honeycombs Wilderness Study Area and declare these badlands no longer suitable for possible future wilderness consideration. The irony is, these lands are not on the chopping block because they lack wilderness qualities or possess other resources more valuable than wilderness. It is simply because it is so easy to write off something someone knows so little about, something not fully appreciated or understood.
It is getting late and the sun is dropping toward the horizon. I adjust my pack and begin the trip back to the front country. Earlier in the day, I drove past portions of an active oil field on my way to these wildlands. I think of all the bladed roads, well pads, storage tanks, and pump jacks spread across that development. Will this sensitive cold desert badlands environment be sacrificed in the search for more oil and gas? Will this be the Honeycombs’ ultimate destiny? Geological reports suggest no economic reserves would be found. However, the footprint and newly-gained access from exploration efforts would forever change this landscape.
But what if public input overwhelmingly rejects the current legislation and requests Congress go back to the drawing board when it comes to BLM-administered wilderness study areas in Wyoming? What if, in the give and take of negotiation, the Honeycombs are not sacrificed in hopes of cementing the inclusion of other, better-known desert wildlands? Isn’t there room in the great state of Wyoming to preserve all BLM-administered wildlands as wilderness? Preserve all 3.1% of the state’s BLM-administered lands? I take a deep breath with hopeful answers to those questions floating through my head.
On this trip I have once again uncovered a few more of the secrets held by this threatened wildland. But there is still so much more needing to be passed on to me and other adventurers. The wild heart of these badlands does not need to be silenced. All I ask is you take a sip and savor the Honeycombs as the unique, cold desert wilderness it has always been. Then, take another sip. This desert is, after all, an acquired taste.
Jack is a retired environmental scientist who has roamed through many of Wyoming’s Wilderness areas and wildlands for over 60 years. He lives in Lander, Wyoming and is currently on the governing board of the Wyoming Wilderness Association. Each time he enters the Honeycombs wildlands, he learns something new. Jack hopes that education will be available for future generations.
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Comments 73
Thank you, Jack Smith!
WHY AREN’T THE LAST FEW PARAGRAPHS A LETTER WE CAN MAIL TO:
PRESIDENT BIDEN (asking him to DESIGNATE 60,000 Ac.WYOMING’S HONEYCOMBS AS A NATIONAL MONUMENT ASAP?
I have lived in Wyoming for twenty years, have hiked and backpacked every summer, and do not know anything about the Honeycombs. Anything wild is worth preserving! We have so little left.
Where do we start, who can we email, call, does anybody know?
Beautifully written... and heartbreaking because it seems like only a matter of time before humans engulf all the wilderness. Shame on us. We can - and should - do better.
Please preserve ALL BLM-administered wildlands as wilderness, especially such a gem as the Honeycombs are! Help preserve our planet, its health, and survival as a wild and beautiful place
Excellent article, Jack. Never been there, but found it on Google Maps after ruling out a few other Honeycombs in Oregon and Utah. Once at the right link (search strategy: "The Honeycombs Wyoming"), I noted there were no reviews, photos or other information, so I took the liberty of adding a link to your fine article. Your essay paiinted a vivid picture in my head so thought it would be good information for others who might search for it as well. I'll look forward to your next essay!
it would be criminal to destroy this place, for any reason. let's protect what little is left of our wild places for ourselves and future generations - not to mention the unique and wonderful wildlife that lives in these one of a kind places.
We need all the wilderness land that we have and more. Please stop taking the important wilderness from the innocent animals that live there. There is plenty of land in other places. Stop taking this land and leave the way it has been for hundreds of years. Keep it safe for all animals, plants, and trees that live there. We need more of these areas as the climate changes, these areas are needed to protect this country from the carbon that is being put out in cities and by big Ags and other groups who turn out carbon daily. We need more wilderness and more places in other parts of the country just like these areas. Protect our wilderness now and leave it as it was hundreds of years. Keep it safe from people and big businesses and others who want to harm it and destroy it. We need it now and forever. Thank you.
The Honeycomb badlands are very much like those in southern Alberta, Canada where my family have gone many times to stand in awe at the view point. Many important fossils have been taken from this area for the Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, and for other organizations. This area has a beauty of its own, and a spirit to be respected
We, a family of four voters, are opposed to any reduction in the lands that are termed wild, or wilderness, or refuges, or national parks, or any other designation that prevents incursions by any kind of ‘development.’ We are also opposed to allowing more lands to be opened to commercial livestock grazing, other than wild animals including horses and donkeys that have established herds. We need more wild areas, certainly not less, and they all need to be protected.
Please preserve ALL BLM-administered wildlands as wilderness, especially such a gem as the Honeycombs are! Help preserve our planet, its health, and survival as a wild and beautiful place.
GJ Rosenberg
Please, it is important that we preserve all BLM administered wild lands as wilderness for future generations.
WTF, Jack?
You’re describing a tragedy of candidate Wilderness just waiting to be lost;
WHERE’S THE ACTION WE CAN TAKE TO PREVENT IT?
WHY AREN’T THE LAST FEW PARAGRAPHS A LETTER WE CAN MAIL TO:
PRESIDENT BIDEN (asking him to DESIGNATE 60,000 Ac.WYOMING’S HONEYCOMBS AS A NATIONAL MONUMENT ASAP to keep the pace [for 30(%) by (20)30 designations]!
+ Maybe Interior Secretary Haaland?
+ Wyoming’s Senators (IF it’d do any good?)...
I’d send one to the right local BLM District office (Worland, I presume), but while there’s a map showing those Districts, THERE ARE NO ADDRESSES for those offices!... Maybe Director Archuleta is the right recipient?
HELP US HELP YOU, JACK-
INSTEAD OF CRYING IN (Y)OUR BEER!
I’m glad you are fired up about protecting the Honeycombs WSA! I recommend you visit the Wyoming Wilderness Association website and register for alerts and updates. The bill in question has made it through Senate committee. If and when it reaches the floor of either the House or Senate, an alert for interested people to contact their Senators or Representative will be sent out. In the mean time you can also email your delegation and ask then no to co-sponsor these bills (HR 4332 and S 1348).
Most folks do not know that the ability for the President to establish a national monument in Wyoming under the Antiquities Act was taken away by legislation in 1950. I believe Wyoming is the only state where this has occurred. Too long a story for this, but it came about with the designation of Jackson Hole NM in 1943 and its subsequent inclusion into Grand Teton Natl Park. I am sure if that had not occurred there would be a number of BLM managed Natl Mon in the state today. Something we all have reason to cry in our beer about! Thanks for your passion for wildlands.
We need to take care of the wilderness we still have, not reduce it ever further. We need to be restoring more of our environment back to its wilderness and natural beauty. If we do not respect our world, we will lose it and never regain it again. Its past time we showed "Mother Nature" the respect she so deservedly commands. Lets us not be a stain on this Earth we call home.
Please do whatever is possible by the BLM to protect the Honeycombs land wilderness area.
Please protect all of the natural areas so people MUST protect the national park area when walking around or interacting on the land in some other way. If they refuse to do so, then prosecute them if necessary.
Protect all of our precious Mother Earth! All living things are connected and have a purpose here on earth. I enjoy the deserts in California. Thank you for taking time to preserve the Honeycombs. May your words and work preserve it for the future years.
I hope some day, some year we can stop digging for oil or gas.
Take care of wild places.
Re. Montana's Honeycomb wilderness; as all badlands only compose 3% of the BLM's oversite, and it is unpromising as a source of energy, there is absolutely no question that it should be left in it's natural state, undamaged by roads and drilling. Once it's gone, you won't get it back.
All sites should be protected..I remember the song of Joni Mitchel : And they cut all the trees and put them in a tree museum and they charge people a dollar and a half, just to see them! What is it not to understand that if we kill Mother Nature, we commit suicide..Human animals are inherently stupid and suicidal!
Thank you for writing this.