The Morrison Jeep Trail Is Back: Clarks Fork Canyon Before and After the Flood

Off-Road & Trails
Written by Aaron Thies

Wyoming • Clarks Fork Canyon • 2016–2017

The MorrisonJeep Trail Is Back

About 27 switchbacks, a sheer canyon wall and the Beartooth Plateau on top. The Morrison reopened in 2026 after four years buried by the 2022 flood. Here’s what it was like before.

Tan Toyota FJ Cruiser on a dirt road with the cliffs and forested walls of Clarks Fork Canyon behind on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
27 Switchbacks — No Turnouts — Uphill in the Morning — Clarks Fork Canyon — Never Lift — 27 Switchbacks — No Turnouts — Uphill in the Morning —

One of the Great Ones

The Morrison Jeep Trail climbs out of the Clarks Fork Canyon northwest of Cody, Wyoming, up a wall of switchbacks cut into the canyon side and onto the Beartooth Plateau. It’s a short drive from southern Montana and one of the most famous trails in the region.

We ran it in July 2016 and again in August 2017. Then in June 2022, the same floods that shut down Yellowstone buried the lower canyon and the switchbacks in rock, and the trail stayed closed for four years. In September 2026, it reopened.

So here’s the Morrison as we knew it, and what to know about it now.

Line of off-road trucks parked beside the Clarks Fork River below steep canyon walls and jagged peaks on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Lined up on the canyon floor, 2016.
Brown warning sign at the base of a steep canyon slope warning of a single-lane road with a very steep grade and switchback turns on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
The sign is not kidding.
Champagne Toyota Land Cruiser passing a wooden Morrison Jeep Road sign on a sagebrush hillside on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Morrison Jeep Road, 2017.

The Switchbacks

This is why people drive here. TrailsOffroad puts the climb at about 2,000 feet in two miles. Cowboy State Daily counts 27 switchbacks, and the turns are tight enough that anything bigger than a short-wheelbase rig is doing multi-point turns with a cliff on one side.

It’s a single-lane shelf road with no turnouts. Once you start up, you’re committed. Spotters help on the tightest turns, and nobody should be in a hurry.

Tight dirt switchback with a truck coming around the turn on a steep sagebrush slope on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
One of 27.
Tan FJ Cruiser on a narrow rocky shelf road cut into a canyon wall, seen past another truck on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Shelf road, no turnouts.
View down a steep slope to the winding Clarks Fork River with a truck on the switchbacks below on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
The river gets small fast.
Maroon Jeep Wrangler on a rocky shelf road high above the Clarks Fork Canyon on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
A TJ on the shelf, 2017.
Silver Toyota Tacoma on a rocky shelf road with the canyon and river far below on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Don’t look down. Okay, look down.

Down in the Canyon

Before the climb, the trail follows the Clarks Fork up the canyon floor on a rocky road. The walls go straight up on both sides. This is the section the 2022 flood buried, and it’s been rebuilt.

The canyon is also history. It’s part of the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, the route Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce took in 1877 while fleeing the U.S. Army.

Black flatbed pickup and a line of trucks on the sandy canyon floor below towering rock walls on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
The canyon floor, 2016.
Long line of trucks parked on the gravel canyon floor beside the Clarks Fork below jagged peaks on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Regrouping before the climb.

On Top

At the top of the switchbacks, the world opens up into the Beartooth Plateau: big grassy flats, granite, small lakes and hazy peaks in every direction. After the switchbacks, it feels like a different planet.

Gray Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series leading a line of trucks across a wide grassy plateau on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
An 80 Series leading across the plateau.
White Toyota FJ Cruiser driving through a granite-dotted plateau with a pond and trees on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Granite and ponds up top.
Dirt two-track crossing a wide plateau toward a distant rock outcrop and hazy mountains on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
The plateau goes on for miles.
Alpine lake ringed by granite slabs and pine forest under a hazy sky on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
A lake on top, 2017.
Tan FJ Cruiser with amber lights crawling over rocks past a wooden fence in the timber on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Rocks in the timber.
Gray 80 Series, a white Land Cruiser and other trucks lined up in a grassy meadow at the edge of the timber on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Lined up in the meadow.

The Morrison Now

It’s open again, partly. According to Cowboy State Daily, the Shoshone National Forest and Wyoming State Trails program reopened the lower canyon and the switchbacks in September 2026, working with the BLM on funding. That’s Phase One.

The top isn’t done. Phase Two, about 15.6 miles from the top of the switchbacks to the plateau, is expected to take two more construction seasons, starting around July 2027. onX says the Forest Service is asking people to drive it out and back instead of as a loop, to go uphill in the morning and downhill in the late afternoon, and to check with the Wapiti Ranger District for work closures.

It’s still the Morrison. High clearance, real tires, a short wheelbase if you have one, and a driver who’s comfortable with exposure. Bring a spotter.

For more trail reports, see Seven Mile Rim, Moab and the Wickes Tunnel.

Twenty-some switchbacks. Zero turnouts. Bring a spotter.

More From the Morrison

Maroon Jeep Wrangler and silver Tacoma parked at a rocky overlook above the canyon on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Trucks parked on a ridge with pines and a canyon rim behind on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming
Line of trucks on a canyon road below a sharp rock peak on the Morrison Jeep Trail in Clarks Fork Canyon near Cody, Wyoming

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Aaron Thies
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