Capitol Reef - a view of the Burr Trail switchbacks area

This is a wide-angle view of the Burr Trail switchbacks area. The road descends through the hogback ridge of Navajo Sandstone into the Strike Valley. The Burr Trail road bends south in the Morrison Formation (Jurassic). Strata of Cretaceous age are exposed across the valley in order from lowest to highest: Dakota Sandstone (the first low sandstone ridge); this is overlain by members of the Mancos Shale Formation: Tunuck Shale Member (gray barren valley); Ferron Sandstone Member (another low brown ridge); Blue Gate Shale Member (the steep, massive, gray, talus-covered slope); Emery Sandstone (the caprock sandstone that forms the surface of the Tarantula Mesa - the flat region that extends all the way to the Henry Mountains). In the distance, Mt. Hillers (right) and Mt. Pennell (center-left) are two peaks formed of eroded Tertiary-age igneous intrusions (Morrris and others, 2000; Billingsley and others, 1987).