Coyote Buttes is a section of the
Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness
The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness is a wilderness area located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, United States, within the arid Colorado Plateau region. The wilderness is composed of broad plateaus, tall escarpments, and deep can ...
managed by the
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
(BLM), spanning extreme south-central
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 ...
and north-central
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, south of
US 89
U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section ...
halfway between
and
Page, Arizona
Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247.
History
Unlike other cities in the area, Page was founded in 1957 as a housing com ...
.
It is divided into two areas: Coyote Buttes North and Coyote Buttes South.
Visiting either of the Coyote Buttes areas requires purchasing a hiking permit.
The Coyote Buttes area is an exposure of
cross-bedded aeolian Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
Navajo Sandstone
The Navajo Sandstone is a geological formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the U.S. states of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, and Utah as part of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States.Anonymou ...
.
The variable coloration of the sandstones is a result of various
iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of whic ...
pigments within the layers. A
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
trackway or ''trample surface'' is found in the area and provides evidence of a variety of dinosaurs.
[ The area includes dramatic swirling ]erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
al rock formations such as The Wave.
The Wave and Buckskin Gulch
Buckskin Gulch (also known as Buckskin Creek, Buckskin Wash, and Kaibab Gulch) is a gulch and canyon located within southern Kane County, Utah, United States.
It is located near the Arizona border and is one of the main tributaries of the ...
share the Wire Pass Trailhead
Wire Pass Trailhead is a recreation access point in Kane County, Utah that features several trails leading to natural points of interest.
Description
The trailhead is located in Paria Canyon–Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area of southern Utah ...
on House Rock Valley Road.
Dinosaur trackway
The dinosaur trackway within the area is a site of that has densely packed dinosaur footprint
A fossil track or ichnite (Greek "''ιχνιον''" (''ichnion'') – a track, trace or footstep) is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the year ...
s within the area. The trackway contains more than 1,000 footprints which were made approximately 190 million years ago.Eubrontes
''Eubrontes'' is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), USA, India and C ...
, Anchisauripus'' and ''Grallator
''Grallator'' GRA-luh-tor"is an ichnogenus (form taxon based on footprints) which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. ''Grallator''-type footprints have been found in formations dating ...
'' are present along with a Sauropodomorph
Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had lon ...
that has not been identified.[
]
Gallery
Image:Verm_coyote_buttes.jpg,
Image:Verm_formation.jpg,
Image:Verm_wave.jpg,
Image:From Cottonwood Cove looking north past the teepees, in Coyote Buttes South, Arizona.jpg,
References
External links
*
* , with information on hiking permits
*
{{authority control
Buttes of Arizona
Buttes of the United States
Mountains of Utah
Rock formations of Utah
Rock formations of Arizona
Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona
Landforms of Kane County, Utah
Sandstone in the United States
Jurassic Arizona
Jurassic geology of Utah
Kanab, Utah
Colorado Plateau
Bureau of Land Management areas in Arizona
Bureau of Land Management areas in Utah
Protected areas of Coconino County, Arizona
Protected areas of Kane County, Utah