Archangel Falls, North Creek, Zion National Park, Utah

The waterfall in this photograph cascades over a series of maroon-colored Kayenta sandstone ledges while the buff-colored canyon wall in the background is composed of Navajo Sandstone. Along canyon bottoms in Zion National Park and throughout the Colorado Plateau where flowing water has cut all the way down through the overlying Navajo Sandstone layer and into the Kayenta Sandstone, beautiful water-sculpted waterfalls can be found. The porous nature of Navajo Sandstone allows water to easily percolate down through its sandstone matrix over time until it encounters the more impervious layer of Kayenta Sandstone below. If this boundary is exposed in a canyon wall or along the bottom of a stream, water will either seep or gush from the wall or canyon bottom.