Comb Ridge Monocline

It is not every day that you get to drive through one of the most unusual geological features in Utah, but Highway 95 allows you to do just that. The 120-mile monocline known as Comb Ridge is an ancient fault line that slipped around 60 million years ago and created four of these strange formations in the desert of the American Southwest. This includes one of the most famous, known as the Waterpocket, in Capitol Reef National Park. The giant wall of sandstone cuts the landscape almost perfectly from north to south, and the rock was dynamited through in two places for roads. Passing through the ridge is an unofficial entrance to Cedar Mesa and the newly formed Bears Ears National Monument.

Cedar Mesa is one of the most remote and underappreciated areas in Utah. There are hundreds of archaeological sites in the area. The native ruins of Butler Wash are located just east of the fold, and Natural Bridges National Monument is located about 30 miles west on Highway 95. As you head further west you'll enter the darkest skies in the Lower 48. The only Class 2 Dark Skies exist here, according to the IDA.