Ripple stone

Ready for a geology lesson. This is one of my favorite things to find. I really go ecstatic. It's called ripple stone. It is formed when a shallow fast moving stream flowing over a silty/sandy bed forms ripples in the sandy stream bottom and then the stream dries up leaving the ripples. A younger sandstone - usually aeolian - which means deposited by wind forms over the top preserving the ripples. Later when the two break apart at the disconformity between the layers, you can see the ripples as they were millions of years ago. Most of the red sandstone in Moab is from the entrada formation which is between 140 and 180 million years old. This was at the end of the Jurassic era and there are places in Moab you can find dinosaur tracks. We've seen some down there before and may do a new trail this year that is famous for them. We found these specimens on the jug handle arch trail which turns off the road running along side the Colorado River West of Moab where my last picture I posted of Moab was taken from. I'm scheduling this post so with any luck by the time you see it, I'll be down there.