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
According to Baker (1971, p. 12), the road leading eastward along North
Point was used by the Wild Bunch in traveling to French Spring, whence
they dropped down Millard Canyon (fig. 33) and crossed the Green River
at Bonita Bend, which is just east of Buttes of the Cross (fig. 64).
They also followed the Old Spanish Trail from the Henry Mountains
eastward across the Dirty Devil River, up North Hatch Canyon, across
Sunset Pass, and down across the Land of Standing Rocks to Spanish
Bottom on the Colorado River (fig. 1). After crossing the river, they
followed the trail up Lower Red Lake Canyon (fig. 59) and eastward
through The Needles to Monticello.
[Illustration: Petroglyph]
The Benchlands
The White Rim, a broad benchland some 1,000-1,200 feet below the
southern half of Island in the Sky, and some of the associated
benchlands west of the Green River and between the Colorado River and
Hatch Point have already been discussed as viewed from Island in the
Sky, the White Rim Trail, or Hatch Point. There remain for consideration
several other prominent benchlands.
The Maze and Land of Standing Rocks
The Maze, an intricately carved series of canyons and gullies, has been
called a “Thirty-square-mile puzzle in sandstone” (Findley, 1971, p.
71-73), and one can readily visualize a king-sized rat struggling in
vain to find a way out. The rock is the Cedar Mesa Sandstone, which here
underlies red shales beneath the White Rim Sandstone. South of The Maze
an area containing tall spires was appropriately named by the Indians
“_Toom’-pin wu-near’ Tu-weap’_,” or “Land of Standing Rocks” (Powell,
1875, p. 154).
West of The Maze is Elaterite Basin, so named because of a dark-brown
elastic mineral resin called elaterite, which seeps from the White Rim
Sandstone. One of these seeps is shown in figure 34, and a wedge-shaped
layer of the sandstone is shown in figure 35. In the Range Canyon area
shown in figure 35, sand was being laid down in an offshore bar at the
left, while red silts and muds were being deposited on land to the
right. The dark bed just above the White Rim near the middle of the
photograph is the Hoskinnini Tongue of the Moenkopi Formation, which
intertongues with and pinches out in beds of the Moenkopi Formation to
left. These are excellent examples of what geologists call facies
changes.
South of the Land of Standing Rocks are equally colorful areas known as
The Fins and Ernies Country (named after Ernie Larson, an early-day
sheep man). A prominent row of spires near Cataract Canyon is known as
The Doll House (fig. 36).
[Illustration: ELATERITE SEEPING FROM WHITE RIM SANDSTONE in
Elaterite Basin west of The Maze. Elaterite is a dark-brown elastic
mineral resin. Photograph by Donald L. Baars. (Fig. 34)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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