Picture of the week

Capital Reef tilted rock

Multi-colored layers of sandstone in an area known as Waterpocket Fold at Capital Reef National Park. This unusual set of layers represent a buckeling of the earth's surface along a fault line.  The rock layers on the higher right (west) side are about 7000 feet higher than those on the east side.  This type of large change in elevation due to uplifting on one side of a fault line is called a monocline.  The initial uplift started about 50 to 70 million years ago during the geological phase known as the Laramide Orogeny.  During the more recent geological period that resulted in the Colorado Plateau about 15 to 20 million years ago, the different geological layers of this fold along this monocline were exposed.  Most of these layers are composed of sandstone, representative of ancient river, lake, and sea beds deposited over time.   The term for "reef" is reflective of the early formative layers where this rock was at the transition between water and land.  The layers to the east (left) are considered younger than the layers to the west.  This is a summary of a more detailed one found at the National Park Service website for Capital Reef National Park here.

 This colorful folded fault line runs north-south nearly 100 miles as more evident at the southeast corner of the park along Norton-Bullfrog road.  I traveled through this area during another exploration through Capital Reef National Park, starting in Cathedral Valley that morning, dry camping over the previous night, and then afterwards traversing the park along the Burr Trail.  The place is a wonderland of different geological formations, but at the same time one of the less visited national parks.  For these reasons it is also a good place to go in southern Utah if trying to escape the crowds at the more popular National Parks of Arches, Zion, and Bryce.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2014.  Last updated: 8/11/2014   ()