Up to 300 meter (1000 foot) sandstone buttes and mesas make up the Monument Valley which is located on the border of Utah and Arizona. Probably the most famous example of the classic American West landscape the area has been the backdrop for numerous western movies, ranging from Stagecoach starring John Wayne to Back to the Future II. Technically it is not a valley at all, but a wide flat landscape interrupted by the crumbling rock formations. The buttes are all that is left from the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region and have vivid red tones from the iron oxide.