Andrew Lubbers

Geology 1010

Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef is one of five national parks in in Utah and it is located the south-central desert near

the town of Torrey. Capitol reef gets its name from the whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome

formations, like the white domes often placed on capitol buildings, the story of capitol reef is a three-

part story and all three parts took place millions of years ago, they are deposition, uplift and finally

erosion. I had a friend visit Capitol Reef and then when he told me about it and showed me some of the

pictures he took I know I really wanted to go see it for myself then when I learned about this assignment

I thought it was the perfect excuse to go on a trip and see this amazing place for myself.

Within Capitol reef you will see a classic monocline, (see picture 2) this particular monocline was

formed about 50-70 million years ago. The Laramide Orogeny was a major mountain building event that

reactivated an ancient fault; this is what caused the monocline to form when part of the western part

rose up above the eastern part. Within the last 15-20 million years the whole Colorado Plateau was

raised up again and that is what really made this monocline standout. Within the waterfold area erosion

continues to happen which in turn form many different features such as, domes, spires, cliffs, arches,

winding canyons and some of my personal favorite the big monoliths. (Geology)

The next spot I want to mention is at the overlook to the lower South Desert (see

picture 5) this shows very well a couple different layers in the rock, in the middle of the picture on the

right side you can see the orangish rock that is the entrada sandstone, and on top of that you have the

grayish color of The Curtis Formation that was deposited between 144 to 208 million years ago and is a
harder sandstone that acts as a protective layer to the entrada sandstone underneath. Above the Curtis

Sandstone is a layer of silt stone called the Summerville Formation. At the same over look is the

jailhouse rock monolith (see picture 6) made out of entrada sandstone it has been shaped by

weathering.

Very close to Glass Mountain are my favorite parts of this whole trip, the Temple of the Sun and the

Temple of the Moon, they are two large monoliths that are formed out of the entrada sandstone that as

deposited 160 million years ago during the Jurassic period. (see picture 8) The Temple of the Sun stands

at about 422 feet tall and The Temple of the Moon is about 265 feet tall. They were formed over time by

having water get into the rock and causing to erode, if you look closely at the faces of the rocks you will

that it kind of looks like flowing mud and this is because the particles that these rocks are made from are

very fine and when it gets wet it will actually turn back into mud will start flowing down the face, but

then when it all dries out the mud re-hardens and becomes rock again. Unfortunately, the Curtis

Sandstone caps on these two monoliths have already been eroded so sadly they are currently

weathering away.
 Works cited

Cathedral Valley. (2017, March 6). Retrieved November 23, 2018, from

https://www.nps.gov/care/planyourvisit/cathedralvalley.htm

Black Boulders. (2015, February 24). Retrieved November 23, 2018, from

https://www.nps.gov/care/learn/nature/blackboulders.htm

Geology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2018, from

https://www.nps.gov/care/learn/nature/geology.htm
 Pictures

This is a picture of the goosenecks created by Sulphur spring carving it way though the canyon for such a
long period of time. You can kind of see different layers in the rocks.

This is a picture of the monocline from the sunset point.

3

This is a picture of the Hickman Natural bridge

This is a picture of the Bentonite Hills

5

This is the picture of the south desert overlook where you can see the orange-red Entrada sand stone
with the Curtis Formation above it.

This is the jailhouse rock the first Entrada monolith I came across you can still see the Curtis Formation
on top protecting the Entrada sandstone.
7

The Gypsum Sinkhole

This has three different things in it on the left side Glass mountain is visible then if you move left to right
the smaller monolith is The Temple of the Moon and the larger one on the right side is The Temple of
the Sun
 Reflection

This assignment was probably one of my favorites that I have done, I love to be outdoors,

camping hiking and exploring it has always been a passion of mine and this was a good chance to be able

to go somewhere new and be able to explore a new place with a new found knowledge of geology it

made it very fun. A couple problems that I had were first of all I don’t think I did enough research before

heading out to the field, I should have done a little more research, another problem I had was that even

though I did take notes I don’t think they were good enough I need to be a little more detailed next time

in my notes. The biggest thing I can take away from this assignment that I can apply to other classes is

probably better note taking. What little research I did do was to help me be able to know where to go to

be able to find the geology in the field and even though it did help it probably wasn’t enough, I think I

just need to do more research next time.