"The water in the course of time in decending from those hills has trickled down the soft sand clifts and worn it into a thousand grotesque figures," wrote Merriwether Lewis, captain of the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803-1805.

In the course of geologic time water has chiseled the white sandstone into a gallery of sculpted forms. Historian Stephen Ambrose, who chronicled the great expedition in Undaunted Courage, described this as the most scenic sight he had ever visited. He made the trip ten times!