Standing Rock Portal
Late afternoon sunlight cuts across Monument Basin (aka Standing Rock Basin) with a winter storm exiting across the horizon. The morning brought a couple of inches of snow to the lower elevations of the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands, but by mid-morning the sun began to break through the dissipating clouds and the snow mostly melted except on the north facing slopes. Junction Butte rises up around 1000’ (305 m) to the North (right) with the rest of Island in the Sky Mesa (including Grandview Point) out of the picture to the right.
Monument Basin is marked by numerous hoodoos composed of layered reddish Organ Rock Shale, deposited around 250 million years ago by streams and estuaries of a shallow ocean. Many of the hoodoos are capped by more resistant White Rim Sandstone (bulbous white rock on the right and left), 245 million year old sand dunes. The basin has a unique shape with rounded edges rather than they typical narrow canyons, suggesting it is formed by undercutting of the White Rim Sandstone rather than fluvial erosion.
Standing Rock Portal
Late afternoon sunlight cuts across Monument Basin (aka Standing Rock Basin) with a winter storm exiting across the horizon. The morning brought a couple of inches of snow to the lower elevations of the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands, but by mid-morning the sun began to break through the dissipating clouds and the snow mostly melted except on the north facing slopes. Junction Butte rises up around 1000’ (305 m) to the North (right) with the rest of Island in the Sky Mesa (including Grandview Point) out of the picture to the right.
Monument Basin is marked by numerous hoodoos composed of layered reddish Organ Rock Shale, deposited around 250 million years ago by streams and estuaries of a shallow ocean. Many of the hoodoos are capped by more resistant White Rim Sandstone (bulbous white rock on the right and left), 245 million year old sand dunes. The basin has a unique shape with rounded edges rather than they typical narrow canyons, suggesting it is formed by undercutting of the White Rim Sandstone rather than fluvial erosion.