Cathedral Valley
Capitol Reef's remote northern basin of monolithic Entrada Sandstone 'temples' — including the ~400-foot Temple of the Sun — capped by the green Curtis Formation.
Cathedral Valley is the remote northern district of Capitol Reef, a broad desert basin studded with monolithic 'temples' — huge free-standing fins and towers of buff-pink Entrada Sandstone, the tallest (the Temple of the Sun) rising some 400 feet off the valley floor. The monoliths are erosional remnants of a Jurassic tidal-flat sandstone, often capped by a thin green ledge of the Curtis Formation that has protected them while the surrounding rock washed away. It is one of the best places to see the Entrada standing alone as sculpture.
Geology
Formation: Erosional monoliths ('temples') of buff Entrada Sandstone — a Jurassic tidal-flat and dune deposit — isolated as the surrounding rock eroded away, many protected by a resistant cap of the greenish Curtis Formation.
A showcase of the Entrada Sandstone as a monolith-former: the same unit that arches at Arches here stands as free-standing temples, illustrating how caprock and jointing control desert monolith erosion.
Primary formation: Entrada Sandstone
Age: Jurassic (160 Mya)
The Temples of the Sun and Moon are the signature monoliths; reached by a long, rough backcountry loop road.
History
Named for the cathedral-like form of its sandstone monoliths.