Hole in the Rock Road can lead you to many beautiful and unique
places in Grand Staircase-Escalante. One of those unique places is Moqui Marble Canyon.
Moqui marbles, also known as Shaman Stones and Thunderballs, are
sedimentary concretions formed in water. At first the sediments
are covered by sandstone. When the sandstone is totally eroded,
the Moqui marbles emerge. The park rangers do not broadcast about
this place, and even discourage people from going there, because
in the past some hikers collected these rare marbles as souvenirs .
Without the tour guide we might not be able to reach this hidden
area. In order to get there we climbed up and down very steep
slopes. In addition to Moqui Marble Canyon, along the route I saw
some other photogenic landscapes like what I found in Coyote
Buttes and White Pocket, Arizona. No wonder once a traveler named
Everett Ruess who enthralled the area and exclaimed, “I have seen
more beauty than I can bear.”
