Devil's Slide

Why take your kids to an ordinary playground slide at the park, when you can go to the slide named after the Devil himself? Unfortunately for sliders, Devils Slide is not a real slide, but an unusual geologic feature found in northern Utah. Devils Slide is a classic example of how different rock layers, depending on their composition, are affected by weathering and erosion. The sides of the slide are hard, weather-resistant limestone layers about 40 feet high, 25 feet apart, and several hundred feet in length. In between these two hard layers is a shaly limestone that is slightly different in composition from the outer limestone layers. This middle layer is softer, which makes it more susceptible to weathering and erosion, thus forming the chute of the slide. Looking like a large playground slide fit only for the Devil, this site is a tilted remnant of sediments deposited in a sea that occupied Utah’s distant geologic past. Approximately 170 to 180 million years ago, a shallow sea originating from the north spread south and east over areas of what are now Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. This sea extended as far east as the present-day Colorado River and south into northern Arizona.