The Valley of White Ghosts, also known as the Wahweap Hoodoos of the Grand Staircase–Escalante in Utah, is a stunning collection of giant pinnacles, balanced rocks, and eroded mounds along the cliffs of the Kaiparowits Plateau.
One of the most remarkable features of Utah’s Grand Staircase is its extraordinary variety of landscapes. The hoodoos of the Valley of White Ghosts stand at the margin of the Kaiparowits Plateau. Their snow-white sandstone belongs to the Tropic Shale, which formed from sediments deposited in a marginal sea during the Late Cretaceous, when a vast inland seaway covered large parts of central North America.
Overlying the soft, white sandstone are layers of exceptionally hard, dark rock that are far more resistant to erosion. These dark sandstone caps protect the underlying white sediments from the intense summer thunderstorms that repeatedly batter the region. As the softer material is washed and eroded away around the resistant rock, the striking pinnacles and hoodoos gradually emerge.
Here, geology and meteorology work together as sculptors: the ancient sediments provide the material, while rain and erosion shape it into the fragile White Ghosts of Utah.
