Angry Finger, one of many. Gods were nowhere to be seen.
In April I toured the Valley of the Gods in southeast Utah, east of Utah Highway 261 below the Moki Dugway. It’s underlain by the Cutler Formation … actually it’s called “lower Cutler beds” here because geologists can't agree on a name(s). The rocks are Pennsylvanian-Permian in age, roughly 300 million years old. It's a red landscape: red soil, red cliffs and eye-catching red pinnacles, many of them named.
More angry fingers, on right and distant left (source).
We're in the habit of naming rock outcrops that have suggestive shapes. There are plenty here, thanks to the erosion-resistant Cedar Mesa sandstone, which provides protective caps for softer Cutler rocks. Santa Claus, Rudolph, a rooster, a setting hen, a bell, a battleship, seven sailors, and De Gaulle and his troops all reside in the Valley of the Gods, which prompted the question: “where are the gods?” Then I came upon the Lady in the Bathtub and was really puzzled.
That's the Lady in the Bathtub?!
Turned out my perspective was wrong, as I had driven in from the west. I needed to go a little farther, and a little further around the bend. There she was … a Cedar Mesa beauty luxuriating in a Cutler bathtub.
