Tag Archive for: Navajo Sandstone

Navajo Sandstone cliffs, Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Adam Hiscock; © 2013

We can’t get enough of that jaw-dropping Utah geology—here’s another gorgeous photo to help kick off your Wednesday.

Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen; © 2013

Fall foliage adorns the already colorful walls of Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone in the Zion Narrows. The North Fork of the Virgin River has cut the 1000-foot-deep Narrows in a relatively short span of geologic time (about 1 to 2 million years).

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Sand. Sand as far as the eye could see. Sand that stretched from central Arizona to northern Wyoming and spilled into California and Nevada. Dunes as tall as 30 feet.

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Snow Canyon State Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: J. Buck Ehler

Iron  concretions lie on top of the Navajo Sandstone in Snow Canyon State Park, Washington County. Utah’s red sandstone contains an iron-oxide mineral called hematite. When hematite is bleached from the sandstone, the stone appears almost white. When hematite is concentrated in concretions, they can appear almost black.

Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen

The narrow defile of Round Valley Draw exposes layers of ancient petrified dunes of the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. This is one of numerous slot canyons in Utah’s canyon country formed by the scouring action of infrequent but powerful flood waters.

Capitol Reef National Park, Garfield County, Utah
Photographer: Paul Kuehne

The Waterpocket Fold affords a wonderful view of the geology of Grand Gulch. The Entrada Sandstone (reddish-orange rock on the right) and Navajo Sandstone (pale-orange rock on the left and middle distance) were formed in a desert  environment beginning about 185 million years ago in the Jurassic Period.