Natural Bridges - Mexican Hat

This view is of Mexican Hat-an unusually shaped rock in southern Utah from which the nearby town of Mexican Hat gets its name. Mexican Hat is a remnant of a sandstone layer of the Halgaito Formation, a rock unit formed from sediments deposited on a coastal plain next to a shallow seaway during Late Pennsylvanian time. The ridge line in the distance is the crest of the Raplee Anticline, a long narrow folded upwarp that formed during the Laramide Orogeny (between about 70 to 50 million years ago). Subsequent erosion has exposed the ancient sedimentary formations (Halgaito and older Honaker Trail Formations) that form the core of the Raplee Anticline (Stevenson, 2000).