Mountain Cattle, and Heading Back in Time

Geological time, that is.

I know I am telling this story way out of order (just like the formations on this mountain!). For those who are just coming in, or who have not seen us in a while, please know that we are home, and this is all a blogger-flashback. We are safe and sound, and planning our next outing...a bit closer to home. Now, back to the story...

So, after twisting and turning up a windy mountain road, we get to the top of Big Horn National Forest, and what do we see? A cattle-Xing sign. And there were cattle, crossing. We thought we were in Switzerland for a moment.

Does anyone know what kind of cattle these white ones are? They were a striking contrast to the white-faced black cattle the covered the mountain top.

As we traveled up the mountain, we noticed that the geologically- friendly denizens of Wyoming had labeled the entire mountain from bottom to top, with signs designating the geological period of the formations. As were were traveling, we were heading backwards in time, due to the syncline rising of the mountain, and subsequent erosion. We began at the bottom in the
Pennsylvanian, buzzed back through the Devonian, and finally ended up in pre-Cambrian granite covered by grass and grazing
cattle. What strange landscape had we encountered?

Little did we know, the strangest was yet to come.