"[5] (In contrast, the Crow name, Awaxaawe Báaxxioo, means "Pointed Mountains [Like Sand Castles].

")[6] John Colter, who may have been the first white person to visit the area,[7] probably traveled along the foot of the Absarokas in 1807 during his reconnaissance of the Yellowstone region.

[8] Early explorers also included Gustavus Cheyney Doane and Nathaniel P. Langford, who climbed the summit of Colter Peak in 1870.

Geologically, the section of the range in Wyoming consists of volcanic breccia, whereas there is a transition to granite and gneiss bedrock further north of the state line.

[12] Igneous rocks of the Absaroka Volcanic Province cover an area of approximately 23,000 km2 (8,900 sq mi; 2,300,000 ha) in southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming, including roughly one third of Yellowstone National Park.