This was the longest stretch of Chinle (Blue Mesa Layer) in this valley, looking west.

A rock layer deposited more than 200 million years ago, the Chinle Formation is visible in many of the region’s southern badlands. Back then, the region was full of rivers that carried water northwest toward a large, shallow sea, leaving sand, silt and mud behind. Many of these layers give the Painted Desert its distinctive colors — and the layer known as the Blue Mesa Member is the second-oldest of these layers.