The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National ParkLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Canyonlands National Park
Lohman, Stanley William
Canyonlands National Park (Utah) -- Guidebooks; Geology -- Utah -- Canyonlands National Park -- Guidebooks
Geologically, Hatch Point is similar to Island in the Sky. Both are
bordered by towering cliffs of the Wingate Sandstone capped by the
resistant Kayenta Formation, and rounded remnants of the overlying
Navajo Sandstone rise above the otherwise-flat mesa surface in many
places.
Access to this high tableland is by a good paved road leading west from
U.S. Highway 163 at a point 32 miles south of Moab and 22 miles north of
Monticello. About 5 miles west of the highway we pass Windwhistle
Campground, nestled in an attractive cove of Entrada Sandstone cliffs,
and 16 miles from the highway we reach an intersection. From here it is
7 miles west by paved road to Needles Overlook, 10 miles north to
Anticline Overlook. Like the other high mesas, Hatch Point contains
peripheral areas of scattered piñon and juniper trees and large flat
grasslands used for grazing. Grain tanks here and there store winter
feed for the cattle.
NEEDLES OVERLOOK
Let us follow the pavement to Needles Overlook, from which fine morning
views of Canyonlands National Park can be seen to the south and west.
Northwestward (fig. 27) we look 10 miles across the Colorado River
canyon to Junction Butte and Grand View Point. (This view is along the
line of the east half of the cross section in fig. 10.) The feather edge
of the White Rim Sandstone caps the White Rim west of the Colorado
River, but the White Rim is absent on the east side of the canyon and in
the entire Needles district to the southwest, where the important scenic
features are carved from the underlying Cedar Mesa Sandstone Member of
the Cutler Formation, referred to hereinafter simply as the Cedar Mesa
Sandstone. Both these sandstones are missing in the foreground of figure
27—their place being taken by thin beds of red siltstone, mudstone, and
sandstone similar to those that comprise the Organ Rock Tongue shown
between the two sandstones in figure 22. These are additional examples
of facies changes mentioned earlier (p. 34).
[Illustration: JUNCTION BUTTE AND GRAND VIEW POINT, looking
northwest from Needles Overlook. (Fig. 27)]
CANYONLANDS OVERLOOK
Turning north from the intersection 7 miles east of Needles Overlook, we
traverse a nearly flat grassy tableland to Hatch Point Campground. In
figure 1 the campground is shown west of the old road; the new road is
west of the campground, but no map of the new route was available for
plotting in figure 1. About a mile before we reach the campground a jeep
trail heads west then northwest about 5½ miles to Canyonlands Overlook,
a scant mile from, but some 1,400 feet above, the eastern border of
Canyonlands National Park. This overlook affords fine views of the
Colorado River canyons and the eastern shore of Island in the Sky, but
at present (1973) there are no plans to improve the trail for
passenger-car travel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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