Geology of the Wind River Canyon

Geology of the Wind River Canyon. . , The Wind River Canyon provides a unique slice through geologic time. While driving through the canyon, you can see rocks that were deposited when life was beginning and when Wyoming was covered by a sea with a tropical climate similar to the Gulf of Mexico today., Over the last 100 million years, the Owl Creek Mountains were uplifted, folded, faulted and then eroded by the Wind River to form this spectacular canyon. Because the rocks were folded and tilted from a horizontal to a slight angle toward the north, you will drive past geologic formations from Precambrian (nearly 2.9 billion years old) to Triassic (over 200 million years old) in age, spanning a time period of over 2.7 billion years. Rock types including granite, basalt, metamorphosed volcanic rocks (amphibolite and schist), limestone, dolomite, sandstone, siltstone and shale are exposed in these outcrops.