Where To Find Moqui Marbles

Moqui marbles are a fun and often abundant rock formation found in the spectacular red navajo sandstone regions of southern utah.

Where to find moqui marbles.

Moqui marbles are small brownish black balls composed of iron oxide and sandstone that formed underground when iron minerals precipitated from flowing groundwater. It s not entirely clear to geologists just how moqui marbles were formed. You will have to walk a ways from the road to find them as all the nearby ones have been looted. It has some in depth information on using these stones so have a look at that.

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. There is no trail to the marbles themselves but the area offers some other features that make the trek worthwhile. 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. They re found all over the world but in the u s you ll see them only in utah and parts of arizona.

Moqui marbles are found in the navajo desert. Local gal shari gave us instructions on how to find the moqui balls. 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. Moqui marbles balls pronounced mo key are essentially ironstone and are found at the base of navajo sandstone formations.

To get to the area from the town of escalante take hwy 12 4 5 miles east. 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 are found in sizes from small marbles to baseball sizes. They are scattered across the desert floors of arizona and utah appearing in masses.

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. 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. 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. Moqui marbles have been used for centuries by the shamanic tribes of the continents.

Using mochi balls aka shaman stones by. They were discovered by the moqui indians and can also be called moqui balls thunderballs or shaman stones.