Looking ENE at the Dakota White Cliffs (the tough layer) and the red Entrada Sandstone (soft layer).

The one extra, more unusual feature of the rimrocks is the many balanced boulders, known variously as hoodoos, goblins, toadstools or mushrooms, where flat blocks of hard sandstone are perched atop narrow columns of softer rock, and these provide many of the most photogenic scenes. All the formations are composed of Entrada sandstone, specifically the red and white Gunsight Butte member, while the flat lands in front of the hoodoos are the top of the Carmel formation, and the highest layers of the cliffs behind are from the Dakota formation.