LOOKING NORTH DOWN MILLARD CANYON from head of canyon a mile northwest of French Spring. Note small arch or window in the Navajo Sandstone at upper left, which is shown in [figure 1] as “Arch.” The Navajo is underlain by the cliff-forming Kayenta Formation and Wingate Sandstone resting upon a sloping base of the Chinle Formation and, farther downstream, ledges and slopes of the Moenkopi Formation. Photograph by Parker Hamilton, Flagstaff, Ariz. (Fig. 33)
According to Baker (1971, p. 12), the road leading eastward along North Point was used by the Wild Bunch in traveling to French Spring, whence they dropped down Millard Canyon ([fig. 33]) and crossed the Green River at Bonita Bend, which is just east of Buttes of the Cross ([fig. 64]). They also followed the Old Spanish Trail from the Henry Mountains eastward across the Dirty Devil River, up North Hatch Canyon, across Sunset Pass, and down across the Land of Standing Rocks to Spanish Bottom on the Colorado River ([fig. 1]). After crossing the river, they followed the trail up Lower Red Lake Canyon ([fig. 59]) and eastward through The Needles to Monticello.
The Benchlands
The White Rim, a broad benchland some 1,000-1,200 feet below the southern half of Island in the Sky, and some of the associated benchlands west of the Green River and between the Colorado River and Hatch Point have already been discussed as viewed from Island in the Sky, the White Rim Trail, or Hatch Point. There remain for consideration several other prominent benchlands.
The Maze and Land of Standing Rocks
The Maze, an intricately carved series of canyons and gullies, has been called a “Thirty-square-mile puzzle in sandstone” (Findley, 1971, p. 71-73), and one can readily visualize a king-sized rat struggling in vain to find a way out. The rock is the Cedar Mesa Sandstone, which here underlies red shales beneath the White Rim Sandstone. South of The Maze an area containing tall spires was appropriately named by the Indians “Toom’-pin wu-near’ Tu-weap’,” or “Land of Standing Rocks” (Powell, 1875, p. 154).
West of The Maze is Elaterite Basin, so named because of a dark-brown elastic mineral resin called elaterite, which seeps from the White Rim Sandstone. One of these seeps is shown in [figure 34], and a wedge-shaped layer of the sandstone is shown in [figure 35]. In the Range Canyon area shown in [figure 35], sand was being laid down in an offshore bar at the left, while red silts and muds were being deposited on land to the right. The dark bed just above the White Rim near the middle of the photograph is the Hoskinnini Tongue of the Moenkopi Formation, which intertongues with and pinches out in beds of the Moenkopi Formation to left. These are excellent examples of what geologists call facies changes.