Remnant Highlands

Scotts Bluff and the adjacent bluffs are collectively known as Scotts Bluff, an outlier formation of the Wildcat Hills like Chimney Rock to the east. Twenty million years ago, the surface of the plains was as high as Scotts Bluff, a gently sloping landscape composed of sediments from high lands to the west. About 5 million years ago, the Platte River and its tributaries began to erode the high plains, and water gradually carried away massive volumes of soil and rock, creating canyons that grew wider and wider. Today only the Wildcat Hills, Scotts Bluff, and other erosion-resistant remnants of the high plains remain, and the multi-layered cliff face preserves many of the rock layers that once covered the region.

Gering, Nebraska · United States