Gunsight Butte is a sandstone

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyo ...

, in Kane County of southern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. It is situated northeast of the town of

Page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

. Gunsight Butte is an island that towers nearly above

Lake Powell Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It holds of water when full, second in the United States to only the ...

when the lake is full. This iconic landmark of the Lake Powell area is a

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

composed primarily of

Entrada Sandstone The Entrada Sandstone is a formation (geology), formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposi ...

, similar to Padres Butte to the east-southeast, and Dominguez Butte to the southeast. The Entrada Sandstone of Gunsight Butte is overlain by Romana Sandstone, and capped by

Morrison Formation The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...

. The Entrada Sandstone, which was originally deposited as sandy mud on a tidal flat, is believed to have formed about 160 million years ago during the

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 143.1 Mya. ...

period as a giant sand sea, the largest in Earth's history. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Gunsight Butte is located in an

arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

zone with hot, very dry summers, and chilly winters with very little snow.

Gallery

File:View of Gunsight Butte and Navajo Mountain.jpg, Gunsight Butte seen from the west at

Alstrom Point Alstrom Point is a 4,685-foot (1,428 meter) elevation landmark located in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, in Kane County of southern Utah. It is situated northeast of the town of Page. This iconic landmark of the Lake Powell area is a ca ...

File:Gunsight Butte, Lake Powell.jpg, Gunsight Butte seen from Alstrom Point File:South peak of Gunsight Butte.jpg, Below the south peak of Gunsight Butte File:Gunsight Butte aerial.jpg, Gunsight Butte centered in lake File:09 - Romano Mesa -39 (534883614).jpg File:Gunsight Butte, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.jpg File:Evening on Lake Powell. (41863043621).jpg File:Gunsight Butte east aspect.jpg, East aspect

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
* Gunsight Butte prior to Lake Powell
Aerial photo

Photo of east aspect
by

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

Colorado Plateau Landforms of Kane County, Utah Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Lake Powell Buttes of Utah One-thousanders of the United States Sandstone formations of the United States

See also

Gallery

References

External links