Medicine Wheel Passage
US 14A over the Bighorn Mountains, signed as the Medicine Wheel Passage Scenic Byway — 22 miles of gated mountain highway between Burgess Junction and Lovell, with a 10 percent grade and a high point of 9,430 feet. This one runs on WYDOT's calendar rather than the weather's: crews make a final sweep on an announced day at the end of hunting season and lock the gates, and WYDOT names the day it will open them again in the spring. The dates below are the days WYDOT named.
This year
Live plow-season reports load here. For today's conditions, go straight to WYDOT's status page.
Conditions change by the hour at 9,430 feet — check WYDOT's status page before you drive.
The record
WYDOT aims at Memorial Day weekend and names the day a few days ahead, once the plows, graders and rotaries are through drifts that run up to eight feet deep. Every opening on this record falls between May 17 and May 28.
Will it be open for your trip?
| If your dates start… | The road was already open in | That's |
|---|---|---|
| June 1 | 6 of 6 years | 100% |
Odds come from the full record below — past springs, not a promise about this one.
When does Medicine Wheel Passage close?
WYDOT shuts the gates on a named day at the end of the fall hunting season — late November or the first days of December. It is a safety decision made in advance, not a reaction to a storm. The winter closure covers the 22 miles of US 14A between the gate just east of milepost 98.1 at Burgess Junction and the gate at milepost 76.04 on the Lovell side.
| If you're driving on… | The road was still open in | That's |
|---|---|---|
| November 15 | 6 of 6 years | 100% |
| November 22 | 3 of 6 years | 50% |
| December 1 | 1 of 6 years | 17% |
| December 8 | 0 of 6 years | 0% |
Closing dates come from the same record as the openings — the year-by-year table below. Past autumns, not a promise about this one: a single storm can end the season a fortnight early.
Every year on record
| Year | Opened | Closed | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | May 21 | — | Slide repairs on the Lovell side finished ahead of schedule and WYDOT moved the opening up a day. | dot.state.wy.us |
| 2025 | May 22 | December 1 | Crews cleared up to eight feet of accumulated snow off the 22-mile stretch that spring. | dot.state.wy.us |
| 2024 | May 17 | December 2 | A thin winter opened the road a week early. That October the Elk Fire shut US 14A for a spell; WYDOT reopened it on October 14, six weeks before the seasonal gates went across. | dot.state.wy.us |
| 2023 | May 26 | December 1 | sheridanmedia.com | |
| 2022 | May 27 | November 21 | The one opening on this record confirmed after the fact: WYDOT crews opened the gates at Burgess Junction that Friday. A heavy autumn snowfall brought the closing forward to November 21. | sheridanmedia.com |
| 2021 | May 28 | November 22 | cowboystatedaily.com | |
| 2020 | — | November 16 | No opening announcement survives for this spring. The closing does, in WYDOT's notice a year later, which says the gates went across on November 16 the autumn before. | sheridanwyoming.com |
Why the table stops where it does. WYDOT keeps no year-by-year list for US 14A, and its news pages hold only about two seasons before the older releases come down. So this record is put together one announcement at a time — each row is the day WYDOT named for the gates, in its own release or in a report of that release — and a season nobody announced stays out of it. That is the ceiling on this road, not a gap waiting to be filled.
Record drawn from WYDOT: US 14A opens Thursday between Burgess Junction and Lovell, 2026 · WYDOT: Bighorn Mountain scenic pass opening for the season, 2025 · WYDOT: to close US 14A for the season, 2025 · WYDOT: US Highway 14A opens early for the summer east of Lovell, 2024 · WYDOT: to close US 14A for the winter season, 2024 · WYDOT: US 14 and US 14A reopened after the Elk Fire, October 2024 · Sheridan Media: the 2023 opening · Sheridan Media: the 2023 closing · Sheridan Media: the gates opened Friday, May 27, 2022 · Sheridan Media: the 2022 closing · Cowboy State Daily: the 2021 opening · Sheridan Wyoming: the 2021 closing, which also names the 2020 one · Bighorn National Forest: the Medicine Wheel Passage · Wyoming Office of Tourism: Medicine Wheel Passage, and the 9,430-foot high point. Years with their own link were taken from that record. Last checked September 5, 2026.
Medicine Wheel Passage: opening and closing questions
- When does Medicine Wheel Passage close for the winter?
- WYDOT shuts the gates on a named day at the end of the fall hunting season — late November or the first days of December. It is a safety decision made in advance, not a reaction to a storm. Across the 6 closings on record the gate has gone shut around November 27 — as early as November 16 in 2020, as late as December 2 in 2024. The winter closure covers the 22 miles of US 14A between the gate just east of milepost 98.1 at Burgess Junction and the gate at milepost 76.04 on the Lovell side.
- When did Medicine Wheel Passage close last?
- The most recent closing on the record is December 1, 2025. Crews cleared up to eight feet of accumulated snow off the 22-mile stretch that spring. Every other season we can source is in the table on this page.
- Can you drive Medicine Wheel Passage in winter?
- No. The 22 miles of US 14A between the gate just east of milepost 98.1 at Burgess Junction and the gate at milepost 76.04 on the Lovell side is gated once the season ends, and it stays shut until spring plowing gets through. WYDOT posts the gate's current state.
- Is Medicine Wheel Passage open right now?
- This page is the season record, not the road's condition this morning. Wyoming Department of Transportation publishes today's state of the road, and that is the one to check before you drive — conditions turn over in hours at this elevation. For planning: the usual season runs from about May 24 to about November 27.
- When does Medicine Wheel Passage open again?
- WYDOT aims at Memorial Day weekend and names the day a few days ahead, once the plows, graders and rotaries are through drifts that run up to eight feet deep. Every opening on this record falls between May 17 and May 28. The median of the 6 openings on record is May 24; the earliest was May 17 in 2024 and the latest May 28 in 2021.