Slickrock: Panorama

A view from the first viewpoint on the Slickrock trail.

NPS/Isabel Gonzalez

Quick Facts

Location:

Slickrock Trail

Significance:

Scenic Viewpoint

Amenities

1 listed

Scenic View/Photo Spot

A Land Exposed

This viewpoint is unprotected. Use extreme caution around cliff edges.

Welocome to the first viewpoint on the Slickrock trail. This spot provides stunning unimpaired views of the surrounding landscape and provides a good orientation point for future discussions on this guided hike. From here, geological features are visible in every direction. To the north Junction Butte and Grand View Point (Island in the Sky) are visible as part of the Colorado River Basin. In the northeast, the jagged La Salle Mountains rise behind the Needles Overlook - located within Canyon Rims Recreation Area. To the southeast, the North Sixshooter Peak and the Abajo Mountains are visible. The Needles, the namesake for this district, are visibile to the south. In the west Elaterite Butte can be seen, while Ekker Butte rises in the northwest. 

The La Sal Mountains to the northeast and the Abajo Mountains to the southeast are igneous formations created when molten rock (magma) rose from the Earth’s interior and slowly cooled and crystalized underneath layers of sandstone, shale, and other sedimentary rocks. Eventually the overlaying layers eroded, exposing the igneous rock as our present-day mountains.

Dominating the rest of the scene is the stair-step topography of canyon country: canyons, buttes, mesas, and needles. Unlike the fire-born igneous mountains, these older sedimentary rocks were deposited by wind and water. Layer upon layer of sand, silt, clay, and gravel were laid down over geologic time. Following deposition of these sediments, water gradually eroded them into the formations visible today.