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| Cedar Breaks Amphitheater |
Nothing is subtle about the great natural rock
amphitheater of Cedar Breaks and its gigantic spectacle of extraordinary forms
wrapped in bold, brilliant colors. “Cedar Breaks is without a doubt one of the
most beautiful areas of Southern Utah,” one observer said. “The vast expanse
and colorful rock formations are truly unforgettable.” The Cedar Breaks
amphitheater is a result of many of the same forces that created other great
Southwestern landscapes, including the Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon, and the Bryce
amphitheater. It is, however, unique as an amazing product of geologic forces.
Shaped like a huge coliseum, the amphitheater is over 2,000 feet deep and over
three miles in diameter. Millions of years of deposition, uplift, and erosion
carved this huge bowl in the steep west-facing side of the 10,000-foot-high
Markagunt Plateau.
Stone
spires stand like statues in a gallery alongside columns, arches, and canyons.
These intricate formations are the result of persistent erosion by rain, ice,
and wind. Saturating the rock is a color scheme as striking as any on the
Colorado Plateau. Varying combinations of iron and manganese give the rock its
different reds, yellows, and purples. Among the region’s original residents are
the Southern Paiutes, who called Cedar Breaks u-map-wich, “the place where the
rocks are sliding down all the time.” Later settlers named it Cedar Breaks,
misidentifying the area’s juniper trees as cedars. Breaks, another word for
badlands, is a geologic term describing heavily eroded, inhospitable terrain.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Cedar Breaks National Monument in
1933, calling nationwide attention to its spectacular amphitheater.
Cedar Breaks
Cedar Breaks