Lake Mead - The Redstone Area

The Redstone picnic and hiking area is located near milepost 27 along the Northshore Road. The Redstone Area features massive, weathered outcrops of Early Jurassic-age Aztec Sandstone. The sandstone preserves crossbedding and physical characteristics of sand that was moved and deposited by wind-for example, the individual sand grain are typically very well rounded and have a frosted appearance such as in modern dune sand. The Aztec Sandstone in the Lake Mead region is similar in character and age to formations given other names, such as the Wingate and Navajo Sandstones, that extend throughout the Colorado Plateau region and northward into Wyoming. In Early Jurassic time, much of the region that is now the western United States was part of a great desert similar to the modern "sand seas" (erg deposits) found in the modern Sahara or Arabian Peninsula regions (Verlander, 2008).