In this aerial photograph of Factory Butte, an erosion-resistant layer of Emery Sandstone caps this 1000' tower rising from the floor of the desert west of Hanksville, Utah. Deeply eroded ridges in the Mancos Shale Formation catch the first rays of light as the pilot of our small plane banks a hard turn through the sky. Located just east of Capitol Reef National Park, the soft layers of shale and silt deposits along this section of the Fremont River have eroded into a sea of mesas, buttes and blue-colored hills. Deposited on the floor of an inland sea during the Cretaceous period, these formations are approximately 70 million years old compared to the 150+ million year-old rocks exposed due west of here in Capitol Reef National Park. This vertical photograph was captured using a 35mm format camera. All photos in these fine art photo galleries may be ordered as fine art framed prints or for stock photography usage.