Oak Creek Vista sits at the head of Oak Creek Canyon, 4,500 feet (426 m) above and 14 miles (22 km) north of the popular Sedona Red Rock Country of Arizona’s Verde Valley. The vista rests on columnar basalts erupted about 6 million years ago. Looking south, down canyon, the upper bluffs are capped by the Kaibab Formation resting on the sandy to calcareous Toroweap Formation. Sediments comprising the Kaibab and Toroweap Formations were deposited in shallow seas and on arid coastal plains about 265 to 255 million years ago.
Oak Creek Canyon was gouged by the north-south trending Quaternary Oak Creek Fault. Excellent exposures of the fault plane, and flowery-textured fault gouge, occur along AZ 89A just below the vista.
Online Resources
For more on Oak Creek Canyon and the Red Rock country of Sedona, download John’s Bezy, 44-p., ‘A guide to the geology of the Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon area, Arizona.
Lindberg, P., 2015, Oak Creek-Mormon Lake Graben, North-Central Arizona. Arizona Geological Society Spring Field Trip Guide, 14 p. http://archives.arizonageologicalsoc.org/guidebooks/AGS_2015-05_Oak_Cree...
