Fossil Mountain is a 6,729-foot-elevation summit located in the Western

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

, in

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

of northern

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 ...

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. It is situated ~1.5 miles due east of

Mount Huethawali Mount Huethawali is a summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US. It is situated 3.5 miles due east of Explorers Monument, 1.5 mile west of Grand Scenic Divide, and immediately southwest of Huxley Terrace. ...

, about 1.0 miles southeast of the Grand Scenic Divide, and 1.0 mi west of Havasupai Point.

The Fossil Mountain prominence is a massif-remainder cliff of

Kaibab Limestone The Kaibab Limestone is a resistant cliff-former, cliff-forming, Permian geologic formation that crops out across the U.S. states of northern Arizona, southern Utah, east central Nevada and southeast California. It is also known as the Kaibab Fo ...

, and stands above a tableland of the

South Rim Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered ...

, a forested plateau of Kaibab Limestone.

Geology

Photos of the Fossil Mountain prominence, a large cliff of

, can be seen at Summitpost. (2 photos, Summitpost

/ref> The southwest slope of Fossil Mountain is a highly vegetated (trees), and high angle slope to the prominence. Below the ~350 ft cliff of Kaibab Limestone is about ~250 ft of vegetated slope-former, slope-forming

Toroweap Formation The Middle Permian Toroweap Formation is a thin, darker geologic unit, between the brighter colored units of the Kaibab Limestone above, and Coconino Sandstone below. It is a prominent unit in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, found through sections ...

. The Toroweap sits upon a ~500 cliff-formed, Coconino Sandstone, very vertical, and uneroded, (northeast face of Fossil Mountain, overlooking the canyon). The Coconino sits on large slopes of vegetated

Hermit Formation The Permian Hermit Formation, also known as the Hermit Shale, is a nonresistant unit that is composed of slope-forming reddish brown siltstone, mudstone, and very fine-grained sandstone. Within the Grand Canyon region, the upper part of the ...

References

External links

{{commons category, Fossil Mountain (Grand Canyon)
“The Mts are Calling.com”, Fossil Mountain
Grand Canyon, South Rim Grand Canyon, South Rim (west) Grand Canyon Grand Canyon National Park Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Colorado Plateau North American 2000 m summits