Zions Super-Sequence of Rock Formation
At Zion National Park, Utah, the Virgin River has cut a deep canyon in brilliant white-to-red Navajo Sandstone. Giant towers loom upwards 1600 to 2200 feet - believed to be the tallest sandstone cliffs in the world. Nature's magnificence is on display in southern Utah, just three hours northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The nine known exposed geologic formations in Zion National Park are part of a super-sequence of rock units called the Grand Staircase. Together, these formations represent about 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation in that part of North America. The formations exposed in the Zion area were deposited as sediment in very different environments.
