Geologic Map and Digital Database of the House Rock Quadrangle, Coconino County, Northern Arizona

The map area is in the North Kaibab Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest and the Arizona Strip Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The nearest settlement is Jacob Lake about 8 km (5 mi) west of the map area (fig. 1). Elevations range from about 2,305 m (7,560 ft) on the Kaibab Plateau in the northwest corner of the map area to about 1,555 m (5,100 ft) in House Rock Valley in the east-central edge of the map area.

Primary vehicle access is by U.S. Highway 89A in the northern part of the map area. Four-wheel-drive roads access most of the map area. Dirt roads are not passable in winter snow conditions.

The Bureau of Land Management Arizona Strip Field Office in St. George, Utah, manages the public lands, and the North Kaibab Ranger District in Fredonia, Arizona manages the U.S. National Forest system land. Other lands include one quarter of a section belonging to the State of Arizona, about 0.7 of a section of private land, and about 1.5 sections within the BLM-administered Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area (U.S. Department of the Interior, 1993).

The private land is in House Rock Valley near State Highway 89A. Lower elevations within upper House Rock Valley support a sparse growth of cactus, grass, and a variety of desert shrubs. Sagebrush, grass, cactus, cliffrose bush, pinion pine trees, juniper trees, ponderosa pine, and oak trees thrive at elevations above 1,830 m (6,000 ft).

Surface runoff in the map area drains eastward toward the Colorado River through House Rock Valley and into Marble Canyon of the Colorado River at Mile 17 (17 miles downstream from Lees Ferry, Arizona).