Kings Canyon (Utah)
Encyclopedia
Kings Canyon is a canyon within the Confusion Range
in Millard County, Utah
. US Highway 6/US Highway 50 runs through the windy canyon. The area in and around the canyon is unpopulated, and is only used by humans for transportation and some sheep herding.
The strongly-bedded rocks that line the canyon are chiefly Silurian
to Devonian
carbonate rock
s, though pink Tertiary
ignimbrite
s can also be seen sporadically in places.
A side spur of the canyon, called Cat Canyon, is the location of the most famous tourist attraction in the canyon, Elephant Rock which is in the shape of an elephant carrying a pack or load.
Confusion Range
The Confusion Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is bounded by Snake Valley to the west, Tule Valley to the east, the Great Salt Lake Desert to the north, and the Ferguson Desert to the south. The range trends into the Burbank Hills, Mountain Home Range, and...
in Millard County, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. US Highway 6/US Highway 50 runs through the windy canyon. The area in and around the canyon is unpopulated, and is only used by humans for transportation and some sheep herding.
The strongly-bedded rocks that line the canyon are chiefly Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
to Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
carbonate rock
Carbonate rock
Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...
s, though pink Tertiary
Tertiary
The Tertiary is a deprecated term for a geologic period 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary...
ignimbrite
Ignimbrite
An ignimbrite is the deposit of a pyroclastic density current, or pyroclastic flow, a hot suspension of particles and gases that flows rapidly from a volcano, driven by a greater density than the surrounding atmosphere....
s can also be seen sporadically in places.
A side spur of the canyon, called Cat Canyon, is the location of the most famous tourist attraction in the canyon, Elephant Rock which is in the shape of an elephant carrying a pack or load.