Devil’s Slide, Utah

Devil’s Slide is a strange, massive-size limestone chute, located on the south side of Interstate 84 in Weber Canyon, nearby Croydon, and about eight miles east of Morgan. The Devil’s Slide in Utah, seems like a massive playground slide fit only for the Devil. The Slide comprises of two parallel slabs of hard, a weather-resistant limestone rock around 20 feet apart, some 40 feet high and 200 feet long. In between these two hard layers is a shaly limestone that is softer in comparison to the outer limestone layers, which makes it more at risk to weathering and erosion, thus forming the chute of the slide? The Devil’s Slide in United State is the tilted leftover of sediments deposited in a sea that once occupied Utah is the distant geologic past. Moreover, the Native American believed the area to be the Devil’s territory and another nearby rock formation that was said to be the “Devil’s War Club.”

Therefore, Devil’s Slide is almost 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 stretched as far east as the present-day Colorado River and south into northern Arizona,” a comprehensively explains the website of Utah’s Geological Survey.“ Moreover more than millions of years, substantial amounts of sediment accumulated and ultimately formed layers of limestone and sandstone. However, in northern Utah, these rocks are notorious as the Twin Creek Formation and are roughly 2700 feet thick. Hence more than 75 million years ago, folding and faulting during a mountain- building episode tilted the Twin Creek rock layers to a near-vertical position. Thus, succeeding erosion has exposed the near-vertical rock layers and created Devils Slide.”

As infrequent as the Top of Utah’s Devil’s Slide is not unique, because a same-named and alike rock formation about five miles north of Gardiner, Mont. Just north of Yellowstone National Park, off U.S. 89, this Devil’s Slide, though has a twist and a big curve in its slabs of parallel rock. Countless travelers were surprised when they saw the rock, but since the original highway was quite curvy in that area, the rock was blasted out during road improvements perhaps made long before the route became an interstate highway. Therefore, these days Devil's Slide still entices a lot of inquisitive visitors with enormous roadside trash cans along the interstate, it makes a quick scenic/garbage stop for most travelers.