Along the Zion Mt. Carmel Highway (UT 9),
in eastern Zion there is a roadside pullout where one can stop and
wonder at the sight of the Checkerboard Mesa. It is a mountainous
formation rising 1000 feet above the surrounding plateau, which
was naturally etched in an checkered pattern. According to geologists
the horizontal lines were cut during the Jurassic period by blown
sands of the huge sand dunes that spread out over the land while
the vertical slits were formed much later from rains and melting snows.