Couple of pics of my old favourites

Geologist, where are you?
That bottom rock looks like it is of igneous origin and it don't belong in southern Saskatchewan!
 
The rock in the pic with the old 94 is located right in the area where my grandfather Johnston homesteaded in 1883/4. It sits right at the edge of the Qu'Appelle Valley on the south side, near where the village of Hyde used to be. Hyde was situated down in the valley. My grandfather may very well have rested on that rock on a trip to Hyde for mail and supplies.

This pic is looking north, not far from the rock:

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The rock in the first pic sits partway down the north face of the Pipestone Valley, which is located south of Grenfell. This rock shows the effects of time vividly.
 
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Ken do you know the geology of the prairie, like what formed the Qu'Appelle valley?
And how did the big rocks, like those and the huge one the buffalo rubbed their hair off on and is now a point of interest along a highway, get where they are? Was it from the ice age glaciers?
When I was once hunting in the bush in central BC I found a rock somewhat bigger than a kitchen range, that shouldn't have been there because it was talc. I contacted provincial geologists and they said it would have got there by the glaciers.
 
H4831: I have no idea how either of the rocks got to where they are. The bigger one may have been washed out of the hill it sits on many, many years ago. Judging by the way it is split and weathered, it would have been sitting there for a long time.
 
The rock in the photo with the 94 looks like a metamorphic gneiss, probably sedimentary in origin.

The area in question was glaciated with extensive glacial deposits. The retreat of the glacier in the region would have caused glacial runoff melt water to erode downward (ie. incise) into the glacial deposits.

Based on the roundness of the boulder on the smooth right side I suspect it has been transported a considerable distance by the glacier.
 
Thank you sir, for the info.
As a teen ager I used to travel the old trail from Love to Fishing Lakes and was intrigued with the mass of spectacular hills in what later became Nipawin Provincial Park.
Years later I read where those high hills were formed by the ice age glaciers and pretty Fishing Lake, with it's beautiful sandy beaches, was a left over from the glaciers!
Bruce
 
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