Book Cliffs Viewpoint

The Book Cliffs are built from layers of sandstone, siltstone, and shale that were laid down tens of millions of years ago along the edge of a vast inland sea that once covered much of the interior West. Sand from ancient beaches and river deltas hardened into the resistant ledges, while finer mud settled into the softer, crumblier shale between them.

As the land later rose and the climate dried, water and weather went to work, wearing back the soft shale faster than the hard sandstone and leaving the stepped, book-shelf profile that gives the cliffs their name. The face keeps retreating grain by grain, so the escarpment is still slowly moving, and the debris slopes at its base are part of that ongoing erosion.

The country below the cliffs is classic Colorado Plateau high desert, a mosaic of sagebrush flats, juniper, and pinyon pine broken by dry washes and low sandstone benches. It looks spare from a distance, but it holds more life than it lets on, especially in the cooler hours of morning and evening.

Mule deer move through the draws, jackrabbits and cottontails bolt from the brush, and the country is known for desert bighorn and for wild horses that range the public lands nearby. Overhead, hawks and golden eagles ride the updrafts along the cliff face, hunting the open ground below.

The Book Cliffs are a study in scale and light. Under a flat midday sun they can look pale and washed out, but in the low, angled light of early morning or late evening the banded layers stand out sharply, glowing warm and casting long shadows down the face. That is when photographers and quiet travelers come.

Because the escarpment is so long and unbroken, the view has an unusual, almost oceanic quality, the cliffs receding into haze along the horizon in both directions. From the overlook you can trace the same wall running toward Utah, a reminder of just how vast the Colorado Plateau really is.

Spring brings mild days, the first desert wildflowers, and good light, one of the most comfortable times to be out on the Western Slope.

Summer is hot and bright with little shade, best enjoyed early or late in the day, and afternoons can bring quick, heavy thunderstorms that turn washes to running water.

Fall returns cool, clear air and long golden evenings, ideal for photographing the cliffs, with the river cottonwoods in the valley turning yellow.

Winter is cold and quiet, sometimes dusting the cliff tops with snow, and the low sun keeps the banded rock lit and dramatic for much of the short day.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.