Coyote Buttes is a section of the

Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness is a wilderness area located in northern Arizona and southern Utah, United States, within the arid Colorado Plateau region. The wilderness is composed of broad plateaus, tall escarpments, and deep can ...

managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), spanning extreme south-central

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 its ...

and north-central

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

, south of

US 89 U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section ...

halfway between

Kanab, Utah Kanab ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States.Find a County
". ''N ...

and

Page, Arizona Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247. History Unlike other cities in the area, Page was founded in 1957 as a housing c ...

. It is divided into two areas: Coyote Buttes North and Coyote Buttes South. Visiting either of the Coyote Buttes areas requires purchasing a hiking permit. The Coyote Buttes area is an exposure of cross-bedded

aeolian Aeolian commonly refers to things related to either of two Greek mythological figures: * Aeolus (son of Hippotes), ruler of the winds * Aeolus (son of Hellen), son of Hellen and eponym of the Aeolians * Aeolians, an ancient Greek tribe thought to ...

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

Navajo Sandstone The Navajo Sandstone is a geological formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the U.S. states of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, and Utah as part of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States.Anonym ...

. The variable coloration of the sandstones is a result of various

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of w ...

pigments within the layers. A

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

trackway or ''trample surface'' is found in the area and provides evidence of a variety of dinosaurs. The area includes dramatic swirling

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is di ...

al rock formations such as The Wave. The Wave and

Buckskin Gulch Buckskin Gulch (also known as Buckskin Creek, Buckskin Wash, and Kaibab Gulch) is a gulch and canyon located within southern Kane County, Utah, United States. It is located near the Arizona border and is one of the main tributaries of the ...

share the Wire Pass Trailhead on House Rock Valley Road.

Dinosaur trackway

The dinosaur trackway within the area is a site of that has densely packed dinosaur footprints within the area. The trackway contains more than 1,000 footprints which were made approximately 190 million years ago. Tracks of three genera of ''

Eubrontes ''Eubrontes'' is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), USA, India and C ...

, Anchisauripus'' and ''

Grallator ''Grallator'' GRA-luh-tor"is an ichnogenus (form taxon based on footprints) which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. ''Grallator''-type footprints have been found in formations dating ...

'' are present along with a

Sauropodomorph Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had l ...

that has not been identified.

Gallery

Image:Verm_coyote_buttes.jpg, Image:Verm_formation.jpg, Image:Verm_wave.jpg, Image:From Cottonwood Cove looking north past the teepees, in Coyote Buttes South, Arizona.jpg,

References

External links

* * , with information on hiking permits * {{authority control Buttes of Arizona Buttes of the United States Mountains of Utah Rock formations of Utah Rock formations of Arizona Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Landforms of Kane County, Utah Sandstone in the United States Jurassic Arizona Jurassic geology of Utah Kanab, Utah Colorado Plateau Bureau of Land Management areas in Arizona Bureau of Land Management areas in Utah Protected areas of Coconino County, Arizona Protected areas of Kane County, Utah