The Plainview Formation is an Early Cretaceous geologic unit in Colorado within the Dakota Group, dating to the Albian age. Lying above the Lytle Formation and below the Glencairn Formation, it consists of resistant brown-weathered sandstones, dark shales, and siltstones deposited in near-shore and marginal marine environments along the edge of an ancient sea. It is especially important for its dinosaur tracks, including reported ankylosaur tracks and tracks identified as Caririchnium. These tracks come from the upper part of an estuarine point bar sequence later covered by brackish bay or lagoon deposits, preserving evidence of coastal channels, mudflats, sheltered waters, and the animals that crossed them.