Hunting the Big Horns: A Field Guide to Wild Morels
There's a specific kind of quiet that settles over the Big Horns in late May. The snow has pulled back from the lower drainages, the aspens are just beginning to leaf, and if you know where to look — and when — the forest floor starts giving things up.
Morel season in the Bighorn National Forest isn't advertised. It doesn't have a start date you can look up. It rewards the people who pay attention to the mountain year-round and shows up when the conditions say go, not when the calendar does.
We've been hunting mushrooms in these mountains for years. What follows isn't a precise map — no serious forager gives those up — but it's an honest account of what we know, what we've found, and what the next few seasons are shaping up to look like.
Access is everything up here. Side-by-sides open terrain most foragers on foot will never reach.
The Fire Changes Everything
In late September 2024, a lightning strike in the Bighorn National Forest ignited what would become the largest wildfire in the forest's recorded 100-year history. The Elk Fire burned 98,352 acres — roughly 150 square miles — before snow finally brought it to a halt in January 2025. The previous record for the forest stood around 18,000 acres. The Elk Fire more than quintupled it in a matter of weeks.
For anyone who lives near these mountains, it was a difficult thing to watch. Evacuations in Sheridan County, highway closures, homes threatened. The smoke was visible from town for weeks. It's still raw for a lot of people.
But here's what a Forest Service ranger told us, specifically about morel hunting in burn areas: the fungi thrive on the nutrients released by burned timber, and the window of exceptional productivity typically runs five years following a significant fire. We already know this to be true — we were in the Elk Fire burn area in spring 2025 and came out with hundreds of pounds.
"The Elk Fire burned nearly 100,000 acres. For the next several years, those same hillsides may produce some of the finest morel hunting this range has ever seen."
We're in year two of that window. If you've been thinking about making a trip to the Big Horns during morel season, this is the spring to do it.
Once you find one, slow down. Where there's one morel, there are almost always more.
Reading the Season
Morels don't operate on a calendar. They respond to ground temperature, moisture, and snowmelt — and in the Big Horns, that progression follows elevation in a way that extends the season considerably if you're willing to move with it.
| Window | Elevation | What to Look For |
|---|---|---|
| Late April – Early May | 4,000 – 5,000 ft | Lower foothills, cottonwood and aspen drainages warming first. Start here. |
| Mid May – Mid June | 5,000 – 7,000 ft | Middle elevations producing. Follow the snowmelt line upward. |
| Mid June – July | 7,000 ft+ | Higher country opening up. North-facing slopes, shaded draws, burn margins. |
The reliable trigger: a stretch of warm days following a good rain, with ground temperatures approaching 50°F. Experienced foragers watch the aspen leaves more than the calendar — when they're just beginning to open, the lower elevations are typically ready. The mushrooms follow the snowpack up the mountain. By late June and into July, you're hunting well above 7,000 feet on north-facing slopes that held their moisture longest.
South and west-facing slopes warm fastest early in the season. North-facing terrain is your late-season play, when most other foragers have already called it done for the year.
The North Tongue drainage produces both. We've pulled morels and cutthroat on the same morning in the same canyon.
Terrain and Tree Associations
Morels are mycorrhizal — they form symbiotic relationships with specific tree root systems, which means terrain reading matters more than wandering. In the Bighorn National Forest, the northeast quadrant of the range — the Sheridan side — is significantly more productive than the southwest. Foragers who know the range work the high-elevation aspen groves on steep north-facing slopes, keying in on leaf emergence as the primary visual trigger.
Beyond the burn, look for: dead or dying cottonwood and aspen with bark that's beginning to loosen, moist creek-adjacent terrain where snowmelt lingers, and any draw that holds shade through mid-morning. The Tongue River drainage and its tributaries produce reliably at lower elevations early in the season.
One practical note: ATVs and side-by-sides aren't optional in the best terrain. This is big, isolated country with limited cell service. They allow you to cover ground and reach areas most foragers on foot never get to — which is exactly where the hunting is.
Beyond Morels
Most foraging guides treat oyster mushrooms as a fall species. In the Big Horns, that's not the whole story. We've found significant oyster flushes in spring — growing from dead aspen and cottonwood in the same drainages where we're hunting morels, often on the same morning.
Chicken of the woods runs later — emerging in summer and into early fall as bright orange and yellow brackets. Visually unmistakable, requires no prior experience to identify, and tastes remarkably close to its name. We'll cover it in a dedicated fall post.
The oysters came in spring, same drainage as the morels. The chicken of the woods is a story for another season.
Know Before You Go
This is the part we take seriously, and you should too. The Big Horns produce several species that can make you seriously ill, and false morels — which closely resemble the real thing to an untrained eye — have been found in this range.
Before You Eat Anything You Find
- True morels are completely hollow from cap to base when sliced lengthwise. False morels are not. This is the single most reliable identification test.
- True morel caps are fully attached to the stem and pit inward. False morel caps are partially detached with a brain-like or saddle-shaped appearance.
- False morels contain gyromitrin, a toxin that can cause serious illness and in some cases death. There is no safe version of guessing wrong.
- Never eat any foraged mushroom raw. Morels must be fully cooked.
- If you are new to foraging, go out with someone experienced before eating anything you've identified yourself. The Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms is the standard reference.
- Never forage alone in remote terrain. Cell coverage in the Big Horns is sparse. Tell someone where you're going.
- Carry bear spray. You are in active bear country.
No permit is required for personal-use foraging in the Bighorn National Forest, but harvesters are limited to one gallon per day. Commercial collection requires a Forest Service permit. Check current conditions at the Bighorn National Forest website before heading into burned areas.
What to Do With What You Find
The best preparation for a morel is the simplest one. The same morning we've fished the North Tongue, we've come back with both trout and mushrooms and made this in one cast iron pan over a camp stove.
The morning's take. The recipe that follows uses about a third of this.
North Tongue Trout with Brown Butter Morels
One pan. Caught and foraged the same morning. Serves two.
Ingredients
- 2 fresh trout fillets, skin on
- Fine cornmeal, for dusting
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 1 cup morels, halved lengthwise
- 1 small shallot, minced
- Splash of dry white wine
- ½ lemon
- Fresh thyme, a few sprigs
- Flaky salt and black pepper
Method
- Salt the trout fillets generously on both sides and dust lightly with cornmeal. Let rest while you prep the mushrooms.
- Heat cast iron over medium-high. Add 1½ tbsp butter. When it foams and begins to brown, lay trout skin-side down. Press gently for 30 seconds. Cook 4–5 minutes until skin is crisp. Flip, cook 60 seconds more. Remove and rest.
- In the same pan over medium heat, add morel halves cut-side down. Let them sit 2 minutes undisturbed. Stir and cook another 2 minutes.
- Add remaining butter, shallot, and thyme. Cook until shallot softens, about 90 seconds. Deglaze with wine, scraping up any brown bits. Reduce by half.
- Squeeze lemon over the pan. Taste and adjust salt. Spoon morels and pan sauce over the trout. Eat immediately.
The trout and the mushrooms came from the same drainage. That's the thing about this part of Wyoming that's difficult to explain to someone who hasn't spent time here — the density of what the land produces when you know how to pay attention to it. Morel season in the Big Horns is short, conditions-dependent, and not something you can plan around a calendar. But if you're here, and the signs are right, it's worth dropping everything else.
"Our properties in and around Sheridan put you within reach of this terrain. If you're planning a spring trip and want to know what's producing, reach out. We're usually paying attention."
Every Late Checkout property is within an hour of the Bighorn National Forest. The Magpie Cabin sits on a working ranch with direct access to the country described above. Book early — morel season moves fast and so does availability.