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A view from the Curtis Formation, which was deposit in an ancient Jurassic Sea.

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The mountain to the southeast, the San Rafael Knob, is 7,921 feet above sea level, the highest point in the San Rafael Swell. This deep canyon is Devils Canyon. It cuts through the Carmel Formation, made of limestone & sandstone deposited in a sea that has been gone for 180 million years.
The dramatically, long & steep slopes below the Carmel are formed of Navajo Sandstone, a formation prevalent throughout the Colorado Plateau, forming spectacular views throughout Utah & Colorado. You are still ascending the west side of the rock dome that is the San Rafael Swell. An Anticline of huge proportions, the swell was formed when forces below pushed up layers of rock in the earth's crust. Erosion has worn away overlaying layers, forming the canyon, pinnacles, & peaks you see here & as you drive farther east. Imagine a rainbow with a rough & ragged flat top where every ribbon of color is revealed.

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You have reached the top of the San Rafael Swell anticline, the remains of a dome after millions of years of erosion. Bordered by huge blocks of the Navajo Sandstone formation, this area is called the Head of Sinbad. The stone "ghosts" here & across the highway show the power of wind & water. As wind shifted massive sand dunes, the sands were deposited in a whirl of layers. Buried over eons of geologic time, the sands ceased their movement & turned to stone. Although wind had everything to do with the deposition of the Navajo Sandston, it had little to do with its erosion. The cliffs & canyons you have been driving through were cut by flowing water. From this area, water flows four different directions & into two different rivers. What little water had flowed here has done a lot of work. The action of rainstorms & snowmelts over ten million years can move mountains.

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Spotted Wolf Canyon is where engineers were finally able to breach the formidable thirty mile long San Rafael Reef in 1967 with the construction of Interstate 70 to Green River, Utah. When engineers began searching for a place to take the highway through the reef, they decided this canyon was the place.

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