Arizona’s Coyote Buttes named one of Earth’s ‘most colorful places’
May 13, 2017, 11:04 AM | Updated: Jul 31, 2017, 11:34 am
(Photo by Nalan Aeon/Flickr Creative Commons)
(Photo by Nalan Aeon/Flickr Creative Commons)
Arizona’s unique landscape and picturesque natural wonders are often unparalleled, and Travel and Leisure has named Coyote Buttes as one of the “most colorful places on Earth.”
Specifically, a part of the Buttes called “The Wave” made the magazine’s list, which also included places like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The wave is a curvy, bowl-like formation of sandstone in the Coyote Buttes, which straddle the Utah-Arizona border.
“This sandstone formation is brushed in hues of brick red and golden yellow, changing colors as quickly as the weather patterns,” Travel and Leisure wrote. “Depending on when you visit — sunrise, sunset, the dead of night —you’ll get an entirely different palette.”
A report out of the University of Utah states that the “range of red, orange, pink, and purple sandstone hues is largely due to iron oxide,” and that the Navajo Sandstone is believed to be 190 million years old.
The site is about 80 miles away from the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge, and an approximate six-hour drive from Phoenix.
