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Cedar Mesa and Muley Point

The Colorado Plateau is full of stunning vistas and sweeping views. One of my favorites is Cedar Mesa above the San Juan River and Mexican Hat. Wild, accessible only by a spectacular gravel road, and often lonely, Muley Point on Cedar Mesa provides views of the Four Corners region, including Navajo Mountain, Monument Valley, the Goosenecks of the San Juan, Sleeping Ute Mountain, and part of the Rocky Mountains.

Looking south, the spires and mesas of Monument Valley are visible in the distance.

More than 2.000 feet below us are the entrenched meanders of the San Juan River. The river originally followed a meandering pattern on a low floodplain surface. As the land began to rise in the Tertiary Period, the river flowed faster and began eroding into the surface, but being trapped in the meandering channel, it continued to maintain the same shape as the canyons grew deeper. The rocks exposed here are the Permian and Pennsylvanian rocks of the Hermosa Group, which include ledges of limestone interspersed with shale.

The view to the west exposes the stratigraphy of Cedar Mesa: Cliffs of Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone atop shale layers of the Haigaito Formation. Both formations are part of the Cutler Group.