Where To Find Moqui Marbles

Liz oakes hi lee i have an article on moqui marbles and you will see it under shaman stones as this name is the more common name that is used when referring to them.

Where to find moqui marbles.

You will have to walk a ways from the road to find them as all the nearby ones have been looted. One theory is that some of the younger concretions were formed by the colorado river as it started eroding through the navajo sandstone of the area. Moqui marbles have been used for centuries by the shamanic tribes of the continents. The majority of moqui marbles come from utah s navajo sandstone formation now part of grand staircase escalante national monument and in zion national park.

Using mochi balls aka shaman stones by. Similar concretions can be found in other parts of the world and on the planet mars but the ones called moqui marbles are specific to the navajo area. They are scattered across the desert floors of arizona and utah appearing in masses. About 4 miles from the main road you come upon a whole bunch of slick rock.

Moqui marbles balls pronounced mo key are essentially ironstone and are found at the base of navajo sandstone formations. There is no trail to the marbles themselves but the area offers some other features that make the trek worthwhile. They were discovered by the moqui indians and can also be called moqui balls thunderballs or shaman stones. Moqui marbles are spherical dark colored concretions of iron and sandstone commonly range in size from pea size to several inches in diameter although some can be as large as grapefruits.

They occur in many places in southern utah either embedded in or gathered loosely into puddles on the ground near outcrops of jurassic age navajo sandstone. Moqui marbles are small brownish black balls composed of iron oxide and sandstone that formed underground when iron minerals precipitated from flowing groundwater. Shari explained that during the monsoon months the moqui balls get washed out of the sand and start rolling down the slick rock in piles. It s not entirely clear to geologists just how moqui marbles were formed.

They are found in sizes from small marbles to baseball sizes. Moqui marbles are a fun and often abundant rock formation found in the spectacular red navajo sandstone regions of southern utah. It has some in depth information on using these stones so have a look at that. Even if you re not real into rocks the views from the area of grand staircase escalante national monument where moqui marbles can be found are very nice.

You can find moki marbles along highway 12 between boulder and escalante look for any wash ravine canyon that has sand in it there are some very obvious ones parking can be hard though. They re found all over the world but in the u s you ll see them only in utah and parts of arizona.