Our viewpoint is a saddle between the several rugged Redstone Peaks of the Black Mountains in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  This tumble of dark rock and jagged ridges are what's left of a large volcano torn apart by the action of plate tectonics.  

To the north, red Aztec sandstone peaks out from the brown green limestone and the foothills of the Muddy Mountains.  The land here has been ripped apart, stretched, moved and molded by great geologic forces.