This limestone cliff is a fossil reef. About 260 million years ago a horseshoe-shaped reef built by sponges and algae — not corals — grew around the rim of a deep marine basin here, then was buried under thousands of feet of sediment when the basin dried out. Uplift and erosion have since exposed a section of it, and the Capitan Reef is now the best-preserved fossil reef complex of its age anywhere in the world. The same buried reef holds much of the oil of the Permian Basin.
Getting there
31.8720, -104.8600
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
