A jumbled landscape

Southern Utah and Northern Arizona share common landforms. The free standing formations are usually referred to as hoodoos. One of the most interesting landforms in this area are the so-called "toadstools." If you click on the image, you can see one at the top of the buff colored cliff in the background just left of the center of the photo. The dark brown formation is Dakota Sandstone, most of which has long since weathered away. The Dakota Sandstone is younger and harder than the exposed Entrada Sandstone. The large cliff is composed of Navajo Sandstone. The layers from oldest to most recent are as follows:

• Permian formations
• Moenkopi formation
• Chinle formation
• Moenave formation
• Kayenta formation
• Navajo Sandstone
• Carmel-Page formations
• Entrada Sandstones
• Morrison formation
• Dakota & Cedar Mountain formations
• Tropic Shale
• Straight Cliffs formation
• Wahweap formation
• Kaiparowits fomation
• Pine Hollow formation
• Grand Castle formation
• Canaan Peak formation
• Claron formation

In any given area, some of these layers may or may not be present. This particular photograph was taken in an area just east of Kanab, Utah and about half-way to Page, Arizona along Highway 89. This area is now in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. For more information, see the Geology of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, by Hellmut H. Doelling, Robert E. Blackett, Alden H. Hamblin, J. Douglas Powell, and Gayle L. Pollock, Geology of Utah’s Parks and Monuments, 2000 Utah Geological Association Publication 28, D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey, Jr., and P.B. Anderson, editors