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Shoutout to the park ranger at Bryce Canyon who explained hoodoo formation

He pointed at a specific rock layer and said 'see that red cap? That's harder limestone protecting the softer stuff below from rain.' It clicked for me right there. Anyone know other parks with really clear examples of differential erosion?
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taylor.paige
taylor.paige15d agoTop Commenter
That's cool when a ranger makes it click like that. I saw something similar at Arches, where you can see the softer rock just crumbling away under the harder caps.
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nina_harris39
@taylor.paige but is it really that big of a deal?
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river_reed
Yeah, that "softer rock just crumbling away" at Arches is the perfect example. I read a geology blog that talked about how the Entrada Sandstone there erodes into those thin fins, and then the harder Dewey Bridge layer on top protects them until it finally cracks. It's the same basic idea but on a huge scale.
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