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Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre
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Named after Fountain
Creek near Colorado Springs where good exposures are present, this formation
provides some of the most scenic vistas along the Front Range. This unit
is made up of over 1,000 feet of reddish sandstone, mudstone, and conglomerate
that are Pennsylvanian to Permian in age. The rocks’ character and
composition reveal its origin: They contain granite fragments and cobbles,
demonstrating that they eroded from a granitic mountain range much like
today’s Front Range. This ancient range of mountains, called the Ancestral
Rockies, once dominated the landscape of western Colorado. This ancient
range has long been completely eroded away, and its only record lies in
the sedimentary rocks that once flanked it. |