Vermilion Cliffs
The blazing red Jurassic escarpment forming the second step of the Grand Staircase — Moenave and Kayenta sandstone above House Rock Valley and the Paria.
The Vermilion Cliffs are a blazing red escarpment that forms the second great step of the Grand Staircase, the giant flight of cliffs climbing north from the Grand Canyon toward Bryce. They are built of resistant Lower Jurassic sandstone — mainly the Moenave and Kayenta Formations — stained deep red by iron oxide, and they run for tens of miles above House Rock Valley and the Paria. The monument they anchor is famous both for California condors and for the fossilized dunes of Coyote Buttes tucked into their slickrock top.
Geology
Formation: A retreating erosional escarpment cut into resistant Lower Jurassic Moenave and Kayenta sandstones (river, floodplain, and dune deposits), intensely reddened by iron oxide — the second riser in the five-step Grand Staircase.
A defining riser of the Grand Staircase, exposing the Lower Jurassic section between the Chinle badlands below and the Navajo slickrock above; its cap hosts the Coyote Buttes / Wave exposures of Navajo Sandstone.
Primary formation: Moenave Formation
Age: Jurassic (195 Mya)
Anchors the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument; a California condor release site.
History
Named for the vermilion (bright red) iron-oxide staining of the sandstone.
Lees Ferry, at the cliffs' eastern end, was the historic Colorado River crossing.