16.9 Dike in Precambrian rock. 17.6 Third tunnel in Wind River Canyon, campground on the east. View looking back into the canyon. Wind River Canyon was cut by the Wind River in its passage between the Wind River Basin to the south and the Bighorn Basin to the north. The river changes its name to the Big Horn River as it enters the Bighorn Basin.
Wind River is a good example of a superposed stream .
It cuts right through the Owl Creek Mountains as if they were not there. This seeming paradox can be explained by imagining the landscape after formation of the Owl Creek Mountains and the other Rocky Mountain ranges. After uplift of the Rockies ended, near the beginning of the Eocene, about 40 million years ago, weathering of the uplifted rocks had created enormous volumes of sediment, which buried all but the highest peaks. Thus, at that time, the mountains would not have been as spectacular as today. Streams would have flowed across relatively flat plains with the mountains buried beneath.