The high canyon walls and deep stream bed of Spearfish Canyon are sandstone, shale and limestone, formed originally as an ancient ocean floor. As the inland sea receded and the Black Hills rose, the creek began its work, carving a canyon with walls towering to 1000' above the valley floor. Kind of like looking at a huge block of Neopolitan ice cream above you, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. There were violet-green swallows riding the air currents up this cliff face and turkey vultures drifting over the cliff tops.
Note for movie buffs: some of the scenes from the Academy Award winning film,
"Dances With Wolves", were filmed here. It is easy to see why an Oscar went to the cinematographer when you have raw material like this to work with.
The high canyon walls and deep stream bed of Spearfish Canyon are sandstone, shale and limestone, formed originally as an ancient ocean floor. As the inland sea receded and the Black Hills rose, the creek began its work, carving a canyon with walls towering to 1000' above the valley floor. Kind of like looking at a huge block of Neopolitan ice cream above you, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. There were violet-green swallows riding the air currents up this cliff face and turkey vultures drifting over the cliff tops.
Note for movie buffs: some of the scenes from the Academy Award winning film, "Dances With Wolves", were filmed here. It is easy to see why an Oscar went to the cinematographer when you have raw material like this to work with.
2 comments:
Every time I view the canyon walls, I wonder how it looked all those many years ago. Can't wait until fall to see it in all its glory, again! Nice shots.
good stuff - brings back lots of memories. marge
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