Six Million Years & Counting

Time is a fickle mystery that reveals itself on its own accord; sometimes in an instant, other times in a millennium. The Horseshoe Bend is a perfect example of time revealing itself and its elusive power. It has been hypothesized that over the course of six million years, the Horseshoe Bend was uplifted from the lowest levels of the North American tectonic plates, causing the hotter rocks of the asthenosphere to rise and lift the overlying crust. This delamination resulted in the Colorado River essentially trapping itself and sinking into its own bed. As the years took their toll, the Navajo Sandstone literally shaped itself to the edges of time—the river contorted and wrapped around the e...View all