The Castle 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 iconic landmark is situated immediately north of the park's visitor center, towering nearly above the center and

Utah State Route 24 State Route 24 (SR-24) is a state highway in south central Utah which runs south from Salina through Sevier County then east through Wayne County and north east through Emery County. At a total of 163.294 miles (262.796 km), it is the longest ...

. 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 market ...

from this feature is drained by tributaries of the

Fremont River The Fremont River is a long river in southeastern Utah, United States that flows from the Johnson Valley Reservoir, which is located on the Wasatch Plateau near Fish Lake, southeast through Capitol Reef National Park to the Muddy Creek near Ha ...

Geology

The uppermost portion of The Castle is composed of hard, jointed

Wingate Sandstone The Wingate Sandstone is a geologic formation in the Glen Canyon Group of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States which crops out in northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Geology Wingate Sandstone is particularly pro ...

, which is great for rock climbing, and is believed to have formed about 200 million years ago. This overlays the exposed gray-green layer of the

Chinle Formation The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In Ne ...

which was laid down as volcanic ash about 225 million years ago, and beneath Chinle is the

Moenkopi Formation The Moenkopi Formation is a geological formation that is spread across the U.S. states of New Mexico, northern Arizona, Nevada, southeastern California, eastern Utah and western Colorado. This unit is considered to be a group in Arizona. Part ...

(about 245 million years old), all of which date to the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

. Long after the sedimentary rocks were deposited, the

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 ...

was uplifted relatively evenly, keeping the layers roughly horizontal, but Capitol Reef is an exception because of the

Waterpocket Fold The Waterpocket Fold is a geologic landform that extends from southern Wayne through Garfield and ending in northern Kane counties of southern Utah, United States.''Utah Atlas & Gazeteer,'' DeLorme, 9th ed., 2014, pp. 44, 52, 60-1 The geol ...

, a classic

monocline A monocline (or, rarely, a monoform) is a step-like fold in rock strata consisting of a zone of steeper dip within an otherwise horizontal or gently-dipping sequence. Formation Monoclines may be formed in several different ways (see diagram) * ...

, 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 o ...

.Capitol Reef Geology, NPS.gov
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Gallery

File:He Laid the Foundation of the Earth.jpg, West aspect. Grayish strata is Chinle Formation, brown layer (bottom) is Moenkopi File:The Castle, Capitol Reef National Park, southern Utah.jpg File:The Castle, Capitol Reef.jpg File:The Castle , DyeClan.com - panoramio (1).jpg File:Capitol Reef vista from Sunset Point.jpg, Casting shadow at sunset, from Sunset Point File:Capitol Reef - The Castle.jpg File:Capitol Reef, The Castle.jpg File:The Castle at Capitol Reef.jpg, From visitor center File:The Castle, east aspect.jpg, Looking down at The Castle, from the east.

Climate

Spring and fall are the most favorable seasons to visit The Castle. 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 * The Castle
Weather forecast
{{authority control Mountains of Utah Capitol Reef National Park Mountains of Wayne County, Utah Sandstone formations of the United States Buttes of Utah

Geology

Gallery

Climate

See also

References

External links