At Lodge Grass the Little Bighorn receives the waters of two tributaries, the largest being Lodge Grass Creek which flows west out of its own canyon system in the Bighorn Mountains, and Owl Creek flowing east and north from the Wolf Mountains.

A few miles before reaching Crow Agency, the Little Horn receives the flow of Reno Creek from the Wolf Mountains to the east.

All along this road, and all along the stream in this stretch, the land is privately owned and a sign at the entrance to the canyon provides notice of this fact.

[15] The very rough road ends and the trail up the Little Horn Canyon begins a few hundred yards after the parking area.

[15] The Little Horn Canyon trail was originally established for the purposes of delivering mail to Bald Mountain City, a gold mining town, in the late 1800s.

After flowing out of Wyoming and into Montana at the mouth of Little Bighorn Canyon, the entire remaining course of the Little Bighorn River and all its tributaries are within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation, and access to the river is subject to the unique and confusing mixture of Montana state and Crow tribal law.

Fishing within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation is governed by the U.S. Supreme Court case of Montana v. United States, 450 U.S. 544 (1981).

[19] and only with an enrolled Crow Tribal member in attendance, who is trained and properly licensed as a fishing guide.

[22] If a non-member is found in violation of any part of the Tribal Code, they are subject to fines (Crow Tribal Code 2005, Section 12-11-109), forfeiture of fishing gear, and payment of court costs [23] This confusing and chaotic situation, in which enforcement of fishing restrictions and access to streams depends on who owns the land the fisher person is standing on, has caused fishing websites to conclude: "However, the Little Bighorn runs entirely within the boundaries of the Crow Reservation and access to it is next to nil.

"[24] The prospective fisherman should not be misled by the fact that the blue ribbon trout fishery on the Big Horn River, below the Yellowtail Dam, is fished by non-Indians (provided the non-member complies with Montana fishing regulations and laws), though this stretch of the Bighorn River is within the boundaries of the Crow Reservation.

At the furthest point of the road, two miles upstream from the canyon mouth, at the US Forest Service boundary, there is a parking area maintained by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department but signage prohibits overnight camping.

Upstream, above this point the Forest Service lands a trail that crosses the river on a footbridge to the southeast side and then leaves the river and climbs up out of the canyon to the south finally reaching primitive roads above Dry Fork that go on to the Burgess Ranger Station on US Highway 14 on top of the Bighorn Mountains.

From the start of the Forest Service lands, all along the northwest side of the river there is trail access for about 14 miles (23 km) up to the source of the stream and on to the divide on top the Bighorn Mountains.

Ranchers between the mouth of the canyon (at about the Wyoming Montana line) down to Wyola often report black bear groups living in the timber along the river, and travelers on the Montana portion of the Little Horn road will occasionally site bear out in the pastures along the river, and occasionally along the road.