Gunsight Butte is a 4,678-foot (1,426 meter) elevation sandstone
summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
located in
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon i ...
, in
Kane County of southern
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 ...
.
It is situated northeast of the town of
Page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...
. Gunsight Butte is an island that towers nearly 1,000 feet above
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum ...
when the lake is full. This iconic landmark of the Lake Powell area is a
butte
__NOTOC__
In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
composed primarily of
Entrada Sandstone
The Entrada Sandstone is a formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposited during the Jur ...
, similar to
Padres Butte to the east-southeast, and
Dominguez Butte to the southeast. The Entrada Sandstone of Gunsight Butte is overlain by Romana Sandstone, and
capped
In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...
by
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic, Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandsto ...
.
The Entrada Sandstone, which was originally deposited as sandy mud on a tidal flat, is believed to have formed about 160 million years ago during the
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 ...
period as a giant sand sea, the largest in Earth's history. 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, Gunsight Butte is located in an
arid climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
zone with hot, very dry summers, and chilly winters with very little snow.
See also
*
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...
*
List of rock formations in the United States
The following is a partial list of rock formations in the United States, organized by state.
Arizona
* Antelope Canyon
*Canyon de Chelly National Monument
** Spider Rock
* Cathedral Rock, Red Rock State Park, Sedona
* Cathedral Rock (Co ...
Gallery
File:View of Gunsight Butte and Navajo Mountain.jpg, Gunsight Butte seen from the west at Alstrom Point
Alstrom Point is a 4,685-foot (1,428 meter) elevation landmark located in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, in Kane County of southern Utah. It is situated northeast of the town of Page. This iconic landmark of the Lake Powell area is a cap ...
File:Gunsight Butte, Lake Powell.jpg, Gunsight Butte seen from Alstrom Point
File:South peak of Gunsight Butte.jpg, Below the south peak of Gunsight Butte
File:Gunsight Butte aerial.jpg, Gunsight Butte centered in lake
File:09 - Romano Mesa -39 (534883614).jpg
File:Gunsight Butte, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.jpg
File:Evening on Lake Powell. (41863043621).jpg
File:Gunsight Butte east aspect.jpg, East aspect
References
{{reflist
External links
* Weather forecast
National Weather Service* Gunsight Butte prior to Lake Powell
Aerial photoPhoto of east aspectby
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...
Colorado Plateau
Landforms of Kane County, Utah
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Lake Powell
Buttes of Utah
North American 1000 m summits
Sandstone formations of the United States