Hovenweep - view of Little Ruin Canyon toward Sleeping Ute Mountain

This view is looking east down Little Ruin Canyon toward Sleeping Ute Mountain in the distance. The caprock of the canyon is a dense sandstone of the Dakota Sandstone of Late Cretaceous age (about 96 million years old; Dyman and others, 2002). The Dakota Sandstone also contains layers of mudstone and some soft coal. The Dakota Sandstone overlies the Burro Canyon Formation (late Early Cretaceous, about 100 million years old). The Burro Canyon Formation contains sandstone and conglomerate bearing pebbles and cobbles of chert, quartzite, and limestone. The Burro Canyon can be seen in road cut and valley outcrops (Aubrey, 1992; NPS, 2010).