This area represents the entire spectrum of environments found in the Bighorn National Forest and encompasses prairie land to high alpine peaks.

The area is flanked on the eastern side by the Bud Love Big Game Winter Range and the HF Bar Ranch Historic District.

[1] The Rock Creek roadless area is dominated by lodgepole pine, some ponderosa, and aspen stands with low-growing juniper in the undergrowth.

In the 1990s three holes were drilled and abandoned north, south, and east of Rock Creek to assess the area for oil and gas production.

The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was a federal regulation that was adopted by the U.S. Forest Service shortly before President William Clinton left office on Jan. 12, 2001.

It allowed reasonable exceptions for management activities like fire suppression and other public health safety measures, and permitted projects, such as grazing and mining, with valid existing rights to proceed.

[2] At the same time, the national roadless rule attempted to conserve fish and wildlife habitat while not closing any existing access to these lands.

Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis that the 2001 federal rule banning construction of new roads on National Forest land violates the law.

On March 16, 2010, Albert L. "Smokey" Wildeman moved to adopt Resolution #399 opposing the proposal for "Wilderness Designation" in the Rock Creek area.

[6] In early September 2010, videographer Melinda Binks and reporter Rebecca Huntington from Assignment Earth [7] documented the Rock Creek Area on horseback.

However, the deeply cut limestone canyons which are found in the Rock Creek Area are not geologically stable for water storage and would not add a significant or economically feasible amount of capacity.