What are the things that look like squiggly iron rebar (or fossilized corn cobs) sticking out of the sandstone on top of the mesas?
These are fossilized shrimp burrows. During the cretaceous period, approximately 60 to 80 million years ago, the Great Inland Sea covered this area. Crustaceans known as Callianasa major constructed tunnels under the sand, which filled in with iron deposits after the sea receded from the area, leaving casts of their burrows.
