The Colorado Plateau covers portions of the Four Corner States and 140,000 square miles. The area was once a deep basin that collected sediments for eons. Sediment deposits, either washed in or blown in, became lithified into solid sedimentary rock by processes of compaction and cementation. The plateau area and the entire Rocky Mountain Chain were uplifted four to six thousand feet approximately 60 million years ago.
Sedona's sedimentary rock formations display there colorful, rich earth tones. Putting aside their apparent beauty, these rock formations contain fossils and other clues of our geological past. Rock structures provide evidence indicating how sand particles were moved; either by streams, winds or wave action and the distances that the sand particles had traveled.
Pictured here is the Courthouse Butte found in Arizona's Coconino Plateau. This impressive sandstone feature is found just south of Sedona on Route 179. The four mile Courthouse Butte Loop, bordering on the Munds Mountain Wilderness, is accessed from the half mile long Bell Rock Pathway..