Nature
Checkerboard Mesa is a prominent Navajo Sandstone summit near Zion National Park’s east entrance in southwestern Utah, rising more than 6,520 feet and standing about 900 feet above the Zion–Mount Carmel Highway. Its distinctive name reflects the gridlike pattern on its pale sandstone face, created by ancient dune cross-beds intersected by later cracks caused by temperature changes, freezing and thawing, and wetting and drying. Originally called Checkerboard Mountain by Zion’s third superintendent, Preston P. Patraw, it received its present official name in 1935. The mesa is also part of a dry landscape whose runoff feeds tributaries of the Virgin River and nearby water pools used by bighorn sheep.
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Utah · United States
