Ancient metamorphism of rock, uplift and erosion of the ancient and present Rocky Mountains, ancient seaways, folding and faulting, glaciation, and ancient and recent landslides are evident at the park.
Cheyenne Mountain State Park reveals our state’s basement (foundation) Granitic rocks, found along the crests of the Front Range are nearly two billion years old. This exposure is due to the relentless forces of erosion, and repeated collisions of continental accretion during Precambrian time.
Faulting, folding, and mountain building forces have brought this rock to the surface, often metamorphosing it prior to exposure, through convergent plate collision. Metamorphic rock is formed as colliding plates cause rock in the root of mountain belts to partially melt and recrystallize. New minerals grow under the horizontally directed stress and develop a perpendicular, vertical foliation (Hamblin and Howard, 1975). Both the igneous rock (largely “granitic” rock) and the metamorphic rock became exposed as erosion caused the mountain belts to rise from isostatic adjustment.
