Colorado National Monument is a colorful and scenic park just southwest of the town of Grand Junction in western Colorado, USA. It's located in the northeastern part of the Colorado Plateau Physiographic Province, a large section of continental crust that was significant uplifted during the Cenozoic. The rocks in the park are gently folded into a large monocline that has been erosionally dissected into a series of dramatic canyons.

The major cliff shown above is the Wingate Sandstone (Middle Jurassic), which is the principal scenery-making unit in the park. It consists of eolian, cross-bedded quartzose sandstones deposited in an ancient sand dune field. This is Independence Monument, a differentially eroded sandstone pinnacle that is popular with climbers. The light-colored, well-bedded unit at the summit of Independence Monument consists of Kayenta Formation fluvial sandstones.