Bear Grylls from the Discovery Channel explores the Colorado Plateau which covers Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. He calls it the wildest and most beautiful terrain in the United States. See the link below for a video of Bear Grylls in an episode of Man vs. Wild.
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/man-vs-wild-hoodoo-voodoo.html
Hoodos are the colorful spires reaching as high as 10 stories. Each totem pole looking terracotta colored structure is dangerously unstable and unique.
The lowest rock level formed around 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The sea deposited sediments through a huge seaway from the ocean.
The beautiful rock layer forming the hoodoos are about 45 million years old during the Tertiary period. They are called the Claron Formation. Rivers deposited limestone sediments with plenty of iron in a lake that covered most of Western Utah.
The cracking of the rock happens by a weather process called frost wedging. As the snow melts during the day it flows into the cracks in the rock. At night as temperatures fall below zero degrees the water freezes and expends 10% causing the opening to open up slightly further and further every time the process occurs.
The other weather process involves rainwater. The slightly acidic rainwater dissolves the limestone and begins to round the edges of the limestone.
