Synorogenic nonmarine strata of the upper part of the Mesaverde Group and North Horn Formation exposed between the Wasatch Plateau and the Green River in central Utah record a late Campanian tectonic transition in the foreland region from thrust belt deformation to basement-cored uplift. Thick Mesaverde sections in the Wasatch Plateau on the west and the Book Cliffs near the Green River on the east are separated by the San Rafael Swell, a basement uplift across which the late Campanian section is thinned by erosion. The sedimentary sequence in the Wasatch Plateau was deposited by east- and northeast-flowing braided and meandering rivers. Time-equivalent sections in the east comprise a lower sequence of mixed braided fluvial, tidal flat, and marine deposits overlain by an pward-coarsening sequence that grades upward from meandering river deposits to pebbly braided river deposits. Paleocurrent data indicate that rivers of the lower sequence flowed eastward, while those of the upper sequence flowed northeastward.

Sandstones in the upper part of the Mesaverde Group can be divided into two distinct compositional suites, a lower quartzose and an upper lithic petrofacies, which aid in lithostratigraphic correlation across the San Rafael Swell. Lithic grain populations of the upper petrofacies are dominated by sedimentary rock fragments on the west and volcanic rock fragments on the east. Sedimentary lithic grains were derived from the thrust belt, while volcanic lithic grains were derived from a more distant volcanic terrane to the southwest. Tributary streams carrying quartzose detritus from the thrust belt entered the main northeast-flowing trunk system and caused a basinward dilution of volcanic detritus. During most of Campanian time, sediment transport was eastward and northeastward away from the thrust belt. Simultaneous disappearance of volcanic grains and local changes in paleocurrent directions at the top of the section reflect a change of drainage patterns in latest Campanian time that marked initial growth of the San Rafael Swell and possibly other thick-skinned uplifts to the south. Depositional onlap across the Mesaverde Group by a largely posttectonic assemblage of fluvial and lacustrine strata (North Horn Formation) indicates a minimum age of late Paleocene for uplift of the San Rafael Swell.