By: magic-gigapans
Image: Callan Bentley, Mid-Atlantic Geo-Image Collection
License: Creative Commons Non Commercial ⧉

Uploaded: 29 Apr 2020
Last Updated: 18 May 2020

1.55 gigapixels
48,068 x 32,252 pixels
160.2 in X 107.5 in at 300dpi

This is the south (upstream) end of Wind River Canyon, Wyoming, as viewed from the Lower Campground at Boysen State Park. The rocks here are Archean aged metamorphics. A hand sample of schist from near this site may be viewed here: https://viewer.gigamacro.com/view/qgLlJrM4GWktNC0l A few granite dikes cross-cutting the metamorphics may also be picked out. Further downstream (north), these rocks are overlain by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary strata. The canyon formed during the Laramide Orogeny, as the Owl Creek Range was uplifted, and the Wind River cut downward. The Owl Creek mountains trend east-west, and the Wind River runs south-to-north at this location, providing a near-perfect cross-section through the local stratigraphy.