The Hat Shop - a collection of hoodoos with delicately balanced caprocks on top of them - is a dramatic illustration of erosion's differing effect on the various rock types and layers that make up Bryce Canyon. A hoodoo is a rock pinnacle left standing by the combined forces of weathering and erosion. These vertical rock columns enjoy some protection from further erosion by their dolomite caprock - a uniquely durable form of limestone reinforced by magnesium. Softer layers of sandstone beneath the dolomite caprock erode at faster rates, a process known as differential erosion. The Hat Shop's improbably balanced caprocks are simply an exaggeration of this natural occurrence.

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The Hat Shop

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