#05 - The Grand Staircase – Part 1
It is common for people to combine a particular three national parks together on their vacations: Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce. It makes sense because they’re all relatively close, but did you know they’re all part of the same formation? That formation is called the Grand Staircase. The staircase is one of the most spectacular geological displays on our planet and stretches for 150 miles of breathtaking terrain. It's like reading the pages of an amazing story written in stone. This will be the part one of a two-part journey. In this part we’ll highlight what we see, and in part two we’ll discuss what’s missing. In future newsletters we’ll explore all these areas and show their amazing landscapes in more detail.
Figure 2 - The Grand Staircase (looking north)
Part One - What we See
Most of the sedimentary layers all over the world were laid down during the deposition phase of the flood that occurred during the first five months. The Bible tells us that the water receded and decreased steadily for another five months (Genesis 3:2-3). The massive volume of water filled with debris including rocks and boulders is what carved the Grand Staircase and exposed all those beautiful layers that had been laid down and were just beginning to harden into stone. These aren't just random rock formations, they're five distinct steps that stretch across multiple states! From bottom to top, we have the Chocolate Cliffs (the top level of the Grand Canyon), Vermillion Cliffs (where you'll find Zion National Park plus many other stunning landscapes), White Cliffs, Gray Cliffs, and finally the Pink Cliffs (crowned by Bryce Canyon National Park). (See Figure 3.)
This certainly challenges the belief that all this came about by slow geological processes. Instead, these formations demonstrate a rapid deposition of layers, followed by a catastrophic removal of massive amounts of material, which fits perfectly with a global flood taught in the Bible.
Figure 3 - The Grand Staircase (looking west)
In Newsletter #04 we looked at the lower layers exposed in the Grand Canyon all the way down to the creation (or base level) rock, the line called the Great Unconformity. Now we’re looking at all the layers above the canyon. (See Figure 1 as viewed from the top of the Grand Canyon.)
Chocolate Cliffs
These reddish-brown rock layers are made up of what geologists call the Moenkopi Formation. And it’s fascinating, these rocks don't just cover a small area, they stretch across four entire states! Imagine the forces needed to create something that massive.
But wait, it gets even more interesting, these rocks are packed with marine fossils (shells, fish, and marine reptiles that once lived in the ocean.) Think about that for a moment. We're talking about ocean creatures found in rock layers that are now hundreds of miles from any ocean and thousands of feet above sea level. The global flood makes that whole idea not only plausible but expected.
When you look closely at these rocks, you can see current ripples, mud cracks, and even raindrop impressions preserved in the stone. It's like taking a snapshot of a moment in time when these sediments were laid down rapidly, dried out, and then immediately covered by the next wave of sediment from the rising floodwaters.
Vermillion Cliffs
Now let's climb up to the next step, the spectacular Vermillion Cliffs, where Zion National Park showcases some of the most amazing rock formations you'll ever see. We’ve been told that those towering red and white cliffs that make Zion so famous, are massive sandstone formations from ancient desert sand dunes, but the evidence tells a different story. The cross-bedding patterns in these rocks, those beautiful, curved lines you see in the stone are actually more consistent with underwater sand formations.
Figure 4 - Zion National Park
Standing in Zion Canyon, surrounded by walls of Navajo Sandstone reaching 2,000 feet high, you're looking at evidence of massive underwater sand waves. Think about the scale here, these formations extend from Arizona all the way to Wyoming covering over 400 miles with consistent characteristics. There are no current natural processes that could explain either wet or dry sand dunes that large and that uniform, but the flood could easily provide the volume of sediment and the energy necessary for their formation.
White Cliffs
Continuing up our Grand Staircase, the White Cliffs present perhaps the most dramatic evidence of large-scale water action. These brilliant white formations create some of the most photographed landscapes in America.
The cross-bedding in these formations is truly spectacular with some individual layers reaching 100 feet in height. When you walk through the upper parts of Zion, you can see the smooth, water-polished surfaces that geologists call "slickrock." These surfaces show characteristics that are much more consistent with water action than wind processes.
It gets more exciting when you consider the energy required to create these formations. We're talking about moving and depositing massive amounts of sediment over enormous distances. The uniformity and scale of these deposits suggests that they were formed by global flood waters, not by slow, localized processes.
Gray Cliffs
Moving up between Zion and Bryce Canyon, we encounter the Gray Cliffs, which contain some fascinating evidence of rapid environmental changes. These formations show something very interesting, a mix of marine fossils, freshwater fossils, coal seams, and plant remains all appearing together in the rock record. This suggests massive volumes of water were rapidly mixing and transporting materials from completely different environments. This is hard to explain with slow, gradual processes, but it's exactly what you would expect to see if enormous flood waters were picking up and depositing materials gathered from large regions.
Pink Cliffs
Finally, we reach the top of our Grand Staircase, the Pink Cliffs, where Bryce Canyon National Park displays some of the most delicate and beautiful rock formations on Earth. Those famous hoodoos, the towering spires of rock that look almost like stone sculptures are carved into the uppermost layers of our sequence.
Figure 5 - Bryce National Park
What’s particularly remarkable about Bryce Canyon is that these intricate formations exist at all. Think about it, if these rocks had been sitting here for millions of years, exposed to weathering and erosion, would such delicate spires have survived? The very fact that we can see these fragile formations suggests they were carved relatively recently, like maybe around 4,500 years ago.
A Story Preserved in Stone
From the base of the Grand Canyon to the delicate spires of Bryce Canyon, we're looking at evidence preserved throughout the entire Grand Staircase sequence that points first to rapid, catastrophic formation, followed by an equally enormous removal of sediment. When you visit these incredible places, standing at the Grand Canyon, walking through Zion Canyon, or looking out over Bryce Canyon's amphitheater, you're not just seeing beautiful scenery, you're looking at physical evidence of the most significant geological event in our planet's history. You are seeing the scar left from the global flood of Noah’s time.
Until next time,
Greg and Sheila Bair
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