ABSTRACT
The city of Sedona lies nestled within a distinctive series of colossal red rocks in the Verde Valley and Upper Sonoran Desert of Northern Arizona. Upon arrival from its southern outskirts travelling northwards on Interstate 17, one can make out a pinkish tinge towards the horizon as if the convergence between land and sky had been smudged experimentally by an artist’s chalk. Compared with the relatively featureless surrounding area, composed of acres of dusty plains pockmarked and speckled with cacti, this blushing haze is palpable and inviting. Further in, on Highway 179, one approaches an ancient geological gateway,2 for Sedona is a land of giants. The sudden elevation of textured rock is a deep orange-red in colour, consisting of trifle-like layers
of stratigraphy that create a gradational visual tension between the horizontal and the vertical. In terms of relative dating, one tends to find that the older, darker sections appear towards the bottom while the lighter coloured, more recent geological formations occur nearer the top of these sandwiched buttes and mesas.3 Their overall redness is due to a rusting chemical reaction of iron oxide around sandstone quartz, stained over a period of many millions of years. Concentrated patches of such exposed, sedimentary red rock appear sporadically throughout the Northern Arizona/Southern Utah border and Colorado River region including: Antelope Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley, The Vermilion Cliffs, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, The Painted Desert, and, of course, The Grand Canyon – a multitude of desert chasms, each with its own, unique geological story.
