Heart Mountain, just outside Cody, wasn't always the solitary peak it is now. Fifty million years ago, Heart Mountain was fully a part of the Absaroka Mountain range, dozens of miles away. Whether it had a tiff with neighbors or just wanted a change of scenery, there is no doubt Heart Mountain has indeed moved: rock at the
8,123-foot peak's summit is 250 million years older that the rock at its base. The two pieces obviously hadn't always been joined.

There are several hypotheses explaining this; the scientific one seems, but only slightly, more plausible than the ones about aliens and giants.

Fifty million years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions in the Absaroka Range (these volcanoes are now extinct) rocked the area. Lava from these eruptions was trapped beneath a rock mass in the range roughly the size of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai and, with nowhere really to escape to, the Kauai-sized chunk was eventually tilted two-degrees from west to east. At the same time the rock was tilting, water-filled dikes within it – and if you haven't already guessed, this chunk is what is now known as Heart Mountain – were also filled with lava, and the lava heated both the water and surrounding rock. The uber-hot water had nowhere to escape to and the mountain began to work like a pressure cooker: as the water got hotter and hotter, the pressure continued to rise. Eventually, with nowhere to go but up, the pressure lifted the rock and the mountain began to slide. And slide, and slide. By the time all was said and done, Heart Mountain had left its former neighbors 62 miles behind. And if this isn't crazy enough, Heart Mountain made this trek east in less than 30 minutes, giving it an average speed of about 120 miles an hour.