Beehive Formation
Arizona
This multicolored beehive-shaped formation is a short distance south of the Cottonwood Cove formations, beyond a sandier interlude, and slightly higher in elevation, is the most visited area, closest to the trailhead. The rocks exhibit even more color variation, generally lighter in hue—pale pink, pale yellow and white are the predominant shades. Sizable patches are entirely bare rock, dotted with small pinnacles amongst the higher groups of cones. The band of the best formations in Coyote Bluffs extends a third of a mile south to a wider flat area, site of several larger (seasonal) pools, then to the southwest is another, slightly lower relief area, containing small narrow pinnacles in addition to the usual broader cones and teepees. The sandstone hereabouts is in places noticeably distorted, in contrast to the more usual angular strata elsewhere, and still further west are a line of even more convoluted, deformed rocks including some head-shaped hoodoos, mostly colored white and yellow-brown. This area is at the rim of the valley, above a steep, layered slope that becomes dark red lower down. This rocky escarpment continues one mile southwest to the head of the cove, but the more distant formations appear less interesting in shape, and uniformly red in color. Photo © copyright by Robert Faucher.