Hogback Interpretive Site

Hogback Interpretive Site sits along the Bighorn Scenic Byway.

Hogback

About 500 million years ago the air and land were warmer, and the seas covered all of Wyoming including the area you see.  You would not recognize any animal life at that time.  None of it lived on land.  Then around 75 million years ago, the earth’s crust began to grind together.  The earth buckled, heaved, and the Bighorn Mountains formed.

The long sharp red ridges in front of you are called “Hogbacks.”  Other geological formations to look for are steep escarpments, sheer almost vertical sides caused by the fault that runs along this ides of the Bighorn Mountains, synclines, downfolds in the earth’s crust that cause valleys, and Cuestas, long gentle upslopes of alternating hard and soft rocks.