Chimney Rock is a summit in

Capitol Reef National Park Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve of desert landscape and is open all ye ...

in Wayne County,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States. This landmark is situated northwest of the park's visitor center, towering over above Utah State Route 24. Chimney Rock is also northwest of another of the park's landmarks, The Castle. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...

from this feature ends up in the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

drainage basin. The Chimney Rock Trail is a 3.5-mile loop trail that takes hikers to a view of Chimney Rock from above Mummy Cliffs.

Geology

This feature is an erosional remnant composed of red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

of the Moenkopi Formation, topped with a

Shinarump Conglomerate The Shinarump Conglomerate is a geologic formation found in the Four Corners region of the United States. It was deposited in the early part of the Late Triassic period. Description The Shinarump Conglomerate is a highly resistant coarse-grained ...

caprock Caprock or cap rock is a more resistant rock type overlying a less resistant rock type,Kearey, Philip (2001). ''Dictionary of Geology'', 2nd ed., Penguin Reference, London, New York, etc., p. 41.. . analogous to an upper crust on a cake that is ha ...

of the Chinle Formation. The Moenkopi Formation dates to about 245 million years ago, having formed during the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

. Long after the sedimentary rocks were deposited, the Colorado Plateau was uplifted relatively evenly, keeping the layers roughly horizontal, but Capitol Reef is an exception because of the Waterpocket Fold, a classic monocline, which formed between 50 and 70 million years ago during the

Laramide Orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the ...

.Capitol Reef Geology, NPS.gov
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Gallery

File:Chimney Rock , DyeClan.com - panoramio.jpg, South aspect File:Chimney Rock Lines.jpg, North aspect File:Chimney Rock, Capitol Reef NP.jpg File:Early morning hike near Chimney Rock.jpg, Looking WNW at Chimney Rock, Hwy 24, and trailhead File:Capitol Reef National Park Chimney Rock.jpg File:Moenkopi Capitol Reef Chimney Rock.jpg, From west

Climate

Spring and fall are the most favorable seasons to visit Chimney Rock. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, it is located in a

Cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

zone, which is defined by the coldest month having an average mean temperature below 32 °F (0 °C), and at least 50% of the total annual precipitation being received during the spring and summer. This desert climate receives less than of annual rainfall, and snowfall is generally light during the winter.

References

External links

Capitol Reef National Park
National Park Service * Chimney Rock Trail
National Park Service
* Chimney Rock
Weather forecast
{{authority control Mountains of Utah Capitol Reef National Park Mountains of Wayne County, Utah Sandstone formations of the United States

Geology

Gallery

Climate

See also

References

External links