Temple of the Moon is a freestanding sandstone monolith in Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, rising nearly 300 feet above the desert floor and standing as one of the park’s best-known landforms. In the remote North District, it reflects the dramatic scenery that led Charles Kelly in 1945 to name the valley for its resemblance to Gothic cathedrals. The area was crossed earlier by John C. Frémont’s 1853 expedition. Formed from buff-pink Entrada Sandstone, the monolith preserves a record of sandy mud on a tidal flat and a later Jurassic sand sea, while the surrounding landscape was shaped by Colorado Plateau uplift and the Waterpocket Fold.