The Bad Pass Trail, also known as the Sioux Trail, was established by Native Americans on the border of present-day Montana and Wyoming as a means of access from the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming to Bison-hunting grounds in the Grapevine Creek area of Montana.

Marked by stone cairns, the trail led across Bad Pass and was established in pre-Columbian times.

After Europeans arrived in the area it was frequented by fur trappers and mountain men, beginning in 1824.

[4] Approximately three hundred cairns are known to exist along the trail, particularly in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

The cairns are believed to have been built incrementally, with passer-by placing stones on the pile as a good luck offering.