View allAll Photos Tagged shellcanyon
An early September sun sets over the mouth of Shell Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains east of Shell, Wyoming. This Photo was taken from an overlook near Shell Falls in Bighorn National Forest and looks west toward the Bighorn Basin
Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata (Pursh) Nutt.) or "Oregon sunflower" bloom decorate a hillside meadow near Granite Creek in Shell Canyon, Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming.
US 14 enters Shell Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains east of Shell, Wyoming. The cliffs along the road are made up of Mississippian Madison Limestone.
Bluish lupine (Lupine argenteus) and yellow arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata (Pursh) Nutt.) ) decorate a hillside meadow near Granite Creek in Shell Canyon, Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming.
Lupine argenteus blooms in a mountain meadow near Granite Creek in Shell Creek Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains eas of Shell, Wyoming.
Shell Creek exits Shell Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains east of Shell, Wyoming. The cliffs along the creek in this photo are made up of Mississippian Madison Limestone.
Rotated Blocks of Cambrian limestones and shales in landslide deposits on the sides of Shell Canyon in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming are visible in roadcuts along US 14.
Rotated Blocks of Cambrian limestones and shales in landslide deposits on the sides of Shell Canyon in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming are visible in roadcuts along US 14.
The lower part of Shell Canyon offers a good cross-sectional view of the monoclinal fold on the west flank of the Bighorn Mountains. Sunlight Mesa sits to the right of the fold.
Called by some the “Shell Monocline,” the fold formed as the result of movement on a buried reverse fault. Reverse faults result from horizontal compressional forces caused by a shortening, or contraction, of Earth’s crust. The hanging wall moves up and over the footwall. Thrust faults are reverse faults that dip less than 45°.
When I first was learning geology, this structure and others like it were used to develop the “block uplift model” of Laramide folding. However, seismic data obtained in the 1980s and 90s proved the model to be incorrect. Folds like this in the Middle Rocky Mountains are often the result of thrust faults that do not cut the visible stratigraphic section. Since they are buried and unseen, geologists refer to them as blind thrusts.
Pyramid peak lies on the north side of Shell Canyon near the switchbacks on US 14 in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.The Mississippian Madison Limestone outcrops on top of the peak. The tree covered slope half way down the cliff face is the Devonian Darby Fm (also called the Jefferson/Three Forks Fm). The lower part of the Cliff is the Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite. The Cambrian section is mostly covered with Quaternary landslide deposits. The stream drainage on the right side of the photo is Cedar Creek. Archean (PreCambrian) granites outcrop along the lower part of the drainage and to the right.
Annotations:
Qls- Quaternary landslide deposits
Mm- Mississippian Madison Limestone
Dd- Devonian Darby (Jefferson/ThreeForks Formations)
Ob- Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite
Ag- Archean (Precambrian) granite
US 14 enters Shell Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains east of Shell, Wyoming. Th Cliffs along the road are made up of Mississippian Madison Limestone.
Shell Falls in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming plunges for 120 feet above PreCambrian Granite. During the summer, water drops over Shell Falls at a rate of 3,600 gallons per second. The Creek and Falls follows fractures in the resistant granite. The creek and canyon were named for the shell fossils found in the sedimentary canyon walls above the granite.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - This year I watched the Geminid Meteor Shower from Shell Canyon. The meteors were prolific and I never went more than 5 minutes without seeing one, and sometimes it was 5 in one minute.
This image is a stack of 115 meteors captured in 3.5 hours. Editing takes almost as much time as capturing it.
Pyramid peak lies on the north side of Shell Canyon near the switchbacks on US 14 in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.The Mississippian Madison Limestone outcrops on top of the peak. The tree covered slope half way down the cliff face is the Devonian Darby Fm (also called the Jefferson/Three Forks Fm). The lower part of the Cliff is the Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite. The Cambrian section is mostly covered with Quaternary landslide deposits. The stream drainage on the right side of the photo is Cedar Creek. Archean (PreCambrian) granites outcrop along the lower part of the drainage and to the right.
Shell Falls in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming plunges for 120 feet above PreCambrian Granite. During the summer, water drops over Shell Falls at a rate of 3,600 gallons per second. The Creek and Falls follows fractures in the resistant granite. The creek and canyon were named for the shell fossils found in the sedimentary canyon wallsabove the granite.
East of Cody, WY, the roads turn flat; and boring. So boring that you can't help but speed in the hopes that you get somewhere faster.
But then you hit the Bighorn Mountains, which seem to rise out of nowhere. Climbing up through the Bighorn Mountains, you go through Shell Canyon.
I really can't express how much I fell in love with the Bighorn Mountains.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - As I descended the west side of the Bighorns, I had to stop for this view of the mountain called Copman's Tomb.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Shell Canyon is a dry place with lots of steep terrain. So it was surprising to find this unnamed lake up here. Since it was shallow, it was great for reflection shots.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Shell Canyon is a dry place with lots of steep terrain. So it was surprising to find this unnamed lake up here. Since it was shallow, it was great for reflection shots. This is looking east up the canyon.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - IIt was sunny the morning after an October snowstorm. It was a beautiful drive through Shell Canyon into the Bighorn Mountains.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Fall foliage lines the south side of Shell Creek while snow remains in the shadows of the north side.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - This is the view of Shell Canyon from near Shell Falls. The mountain at the top is called Copman's Tomb.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Shell Canyon is a dry place with lots of steep terrain. So it was surprising to find this unnamed lake up here. Since it was shallow, it was great for reflection shots. This is looking north at the mountain named Copmans Tomb.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Shell Canyon is a dry place with lots of steep terrain. So it was surprising to find this unnamed lake up here. Since it was shallow, it was great for reflection shots. This is looking west down the canyon.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Before going to sleep I pointed my camera in a different direction to capture more meteors. The moon had risen and brightened the sky a bit.
Highsmith, Carol M.,, 1946-, photographer.
Smokey Bear, long the symbolic mascot of the United States Forest Service, alerts drivers in Shell Canyon in north-central Wyoming's remote Big Horn County that fire danger is high there
2015-09-09.
1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color.
Notes:
Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
Created by artist Albert Staehle, Smokey debuted on a poster in 1944. Because the word "the" fit the rhythm of a song about the kindly bear, the character became known as Smokey the Bear to most Americans thereafter.
Gift; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2017; (DLC/PP-2002:038-13).
Forms part of: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Wyoming Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Subjects:
America--Shell Canyon--Smokey bear--Fire danger signs--Albert Staehle
United States--Wyoming--Big Horn County.
Format: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020.
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Part Of: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- Carol M. Highsmith Archive. (DLC) 00650024
Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.48103
Call Number: LC-DIG-highsm- 48103
Shell Falls waterfall, in the Bighorn National Forest along US Highway 14 in Wyoming in the Shell Canyon
- www.kevin-palmer.com - Shell Falls is a beautiful waterfall right by Highway 14 above Shell Canyon. The foliage looked a lot different than the last time I was here.
Shell Falls in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming plunges for 120 feet above PreCambrian Granite. During the summer, water drops over Shell Falls at a rate of 3,600 gallons per second. The Creek and Falls follows fractures in the resistant granite. The creek and canyon were named for the shell fossils found in the sedimentary canyon wallsabove the granite.
A geological wonder, Shell Canyon exposes hundreds of feet of shale and granite down to Precambrian bedrock. Dinosaur fossils are well represented in the nearby town of Shell to the west.
Shell Creek goes over a powerful waterfall 120 ft high, but the park was closed when I was there on August 22. Nevertheless, the canyon makes for a scenic drive through the Bighorn Mountains on Wyoming Highway 14.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - This dead tree looked like it had once grown directly out of the rock. Copman's Tomb is the mountain in the background.
Shell Creek winds it way out of the Western side of the Bighorn Mountains, along the Bighorn Scenic Byway. Exposed rock in this area was formed 330-360 million years ago and exposed during the Laramide Orogeny ~70 million years ago (the Bighorns were pushed up and into existence during this time.)
The steep walls of Shell Canyon rise straight up on either side of the creek and road.
More information on the Bighorns and Shell Creek from Wikipedia.
US 14 winds its way through Shell Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains in Big Horn County, Wyoming. This photo was taken west of Shell Falls and east of Post Creek.
- www.kevin-palmer.com - I hiked a few miles on the Shell Bench Trail until I reached this view. Patches of snow prevented me from going any farther.
This prominent cliff between Cedar and Shell Creeks in Shell canyon on the Western side of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming can be seen from far out in the Bighorn Basin. As one travels in the Canyon it is an ever present landmark. Wolfgang Robert Copman, known as Jack, was one of the earlier Bighorn Basin settlers and sheepmen establishing a ranch on Beaver Creek north of Shell in 1880. Jack is said to have loved the square mountain in Shell Canyon and wished to be buried there when he died. He apparently was quite vocal about his wish telling everyone who would listen. As a result the locals started calling the mountain Copman's Tomb . The name stuck and it was officially named that by U.S. Geological Survey (though the official name now lacks the apostrophe). However when Copman died in Billings MT in 1907 his wish to have his ashes spread on the mountain top was not granted. As I have heard the story, his wife, religiously opposed to cremation, gave Jack a "proper burial" in the Greybull, WY Cemetery. Well that's the story I have heard. I have never checked to see if I can find his grave in the Greybull Cemetery but plan to do that on my next trip up there. Regardless the reasons why, Mr Copman was not buried nor his ashes spread on the mountain, the butte still carries his name none the less. There are folks who swear (wrongly) that his remains are scattered there. I have seen the mountain's name also spelled Copemans Tomb (with and with out the possessive).
Though Copmans Tomb is not actually a tomb, in 1910 it did serve has a giant temporary headstone. In the summer of that year the skeleton of Nathan Lindsey of Ipavia, Illinois was found on the slopes beneath the butte. In the Spring of 1910 Nathan had been staying at a ranch in the area. According to published newspaper accounts, he rode out to mail a letter to his wife and get supplies but evidently got caught by surprise in a late spring snow storm. Missing for 10 weeks he was found in the shadow of Copmans Tomb still be guarded by his faithful dog . As put by the Basin Republican newspaper in Aug 1910, "It’was here in its (referring to Copmans Tomb) cooling shade and under its shadow all that remained of Nathan A. Lindsey was found, guarded only by the stars and his faithful dog.” (They don’t write like that in newspapers anymore.) Searchers also found one of Lindsey's horses alive, the other 2 perished.
Information above from personal recollections and the following sources:
USGS Geographic Names Information System geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:2928542222691::NO::P3...
US Forest Service, Shell Falls Interpretive Brochure
Leavitt Family Genealogical Database
Wolfgang Robert Copman, obituaries found in Biography files in the Wyoming Room of the Sheridan County Library
Basin Republican as quoted in the Daily Enterprise August 9, 1910, page 3
“Nathan Lindsey of Ipavia, Ill., skeleton found in Big Horn Mts”, Sulphur Springs Gazette, Hopkins Co., Texas 19 Aug 1910
This prominent cliff between Cedar and Shell Creeks in Shell Canyon on the Western side of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming can be seen from far out in the Bighorn Basin. As one travels in the canyon it is an ever present landmark. Wolfgang Robert Copman, known as Jack, was one of the earlier Bighorn Basin settlers and sheepmen establishing a ranch on Beaver Creek north of Shell in 1880. Jack is said to have loved the square mountain in Shell Canyon and wished to be buried there when he died. He apparently was quite vocal about his wish; telling everyone who would listen. As a result the locals started calling the mountain Copman's Tomb . The name stuck and it was officially named that by U.S. Geological Survey (though the official name now lacks the apostrophe). However when Copman died in Billings MT in 1907 his wish to have his ashes spread on the mountain top was never realized. According to his great great grand daughter, the family simply never got around to it. (In 1907 the trip to the top of the mountain was quite a trek accomplished only on horseback or on foot). When his wife Betty died, his family buried his ashes next to her in the Greybull, WY Cemetery. There are several other version of this story that float around about why Mr Copman was not buried nor his ashes spread on the mountain, but, in light of the family recollections, most appear to be apocryphal. In addtion, there are folks who swear (wrongly) that his remains are scattered there. I have seen the mountain's name also spelled Copemans Tomb (with and with out the possessive).
Though Copmans Tomb is not actually a tomb, in 1910 it did serve has a giant temporary headstone. In the summer of that year the skeleton of Nathan Lindsey of Ipavia, Illinois was found on the slopes beneath the butte. In the Spring of 1910 Nathan had been staying at a ranch in the area. According to published newspaper accounts, he rode out to mail a letter to his wife and get supplies but evidently got caught by surprise in a late spring snow storm. Missing for 10 weeks, he was found in the shadow of Copmans Tomb still be guarded by his faithful dog . As put by the Basin Republican newspaper in Aug 1910, "T’was here in its (referring to Copmans Tomb) cooling shade and under its shadow all that remained of Nathan A. Lindsey was found, guarded only by the stars and his faithful dog.” (They don’t write like that in newspapers anymore.) Searchers also found one of Lindsey's horses alive, the other 2 perished.
Information above from personal recollections and the following sources:
USGS Geographic Names Information System geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:2928542222691::NO::P3...
US Forest Service, Shell Falls Interpretive Brochure
Leavitt Family Genealogical Database
Wolfgang Robert Copman, obituaries found in Biography files in the Wyoming Room of the Sheridan County Library
Comments on this flickr page from his Great Great Grand Daughter, Stephanie Prescott
Basin Republican as quoted in the Daily Enterprise August 9, 1910, page 3
“Nathan Lindsey of Ipavia, Ill., skeleton found in Big Horn Mts”, Sulphur Springs Gazette, Hopkins Co., Texas 19 Aug 1910
In Shell Canyon between Shell Falls and Granite Creek on the south side of the inner Canyon wall there is a smooth granite cliff face that has been stained by iron and manganese minerals that have been deposited by water from small low volume springs that issue from cracks at the top of the cliff. In the winter this water often freezes on the cliff face. The result is a striped cliff face that my mother's family named "The Indian Blanket." When I was a kid we used to look for the Indian Blanket. It became a family landmark that told us how far up the Canyon we were. I still always look for the "Indian Blanket". I wonder if other families had other names for it?
- www.kevin-palmer.com - This spring fed pond in Shell Canyon is one of my favorites. It's usually calm enough for a reflection. The mountain above is called Copmans Tomb.
In Shell Canyon between Shell Falls and Granite Creek on the south side of the inner Canyon wall there is a smooth, granite cliff face that has been stained by iron and manganese minerals that have been deposited by water from small low volume springs that issue from cracks at the top of the cliff. In the winter this water often freezes on the cliff face. The result is a striped cliff face that my mother's family named "The Indian Blanket." When I was a kid we used to look for the Indian Blanket. It became a family landmark that told us how far up the Canyon we were. I still always look for the "Indian Blanket". I wonder if other families had other names for it?
Shell Creek, flowing below many mountains in the Bighorn Range that very generously drain snowmelt into it every spring, is a refreshing little river that has long borne responsibility for making the high desert around it livable for the earliest people in the region to today's agricultural endeavors.
These views of the falls were taken at Shell Falls Interpretive Site, a beautifully thought out site with views galore, maintained by the US Forest Service along US Highway 14.
My efforts to "silk" water cascading over the brink of Shell Falls taught me that water moves over different side channels at different velocities!
Shell Creek, flowing below many mountains in the Bighorn
Range that very generously drain snowmelt into it every spring, is a refreshing little river that has long borne responsibility for making the high desert around it livable for the earliest people in the region to today's agricultural endeavors.
These views of the falls were taken at Shell Falls Interpretive Site, a beautifully thought out site with views galore, maintained by the US Forest Service along US Highway 14.