The Dakota Formation of south-central Utah was deposited in the foreland basin to the east of the Sevier orogenic belt. During the early Late Cretaceous, clastics shed from the west accumulated in valleys cut into Jurassic rocks along the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway.

Braided stream deposits of horizontal and planar-tabular cross-bedded sand and gravel were the first sediments laid down on the erosional surface. Associated with a transgression of the seaway, anastomosed stream channel sands encased in fine-grained overbank sediments were the next to be deposited. Marine-influenced clastics overlie the fluvial sediments. Initially, these were lagoonal or...