How Southeast Utah’s Most Famous Monument Stays Up

07/23/25

“How does Southeast Utah’s most famous monument stay up?”

Southeast Utah has many beautiful sights to see. But one of the most breathtaking is the (perhaps not culturally respectfully named) “Mexican Hat” monument. This inverted sombrero-looking rock formation seems to defy gravity. How did this end up this way? Well, it’s actually pretty simple. The bottom support layer (made of shale and siltstone) erodes faster than the top layer (made of orange-red sandstone). While these were likely of more equal sizes in the past, over time, the bottom layer eroded more than the top layer, leading to the differences we see today. This is How Southeast Utah’s Most Famous Monument Stays Up.

Image credit: https://img.atlasobscura.com/