Fisher Towers are a series of towers made of Cutler sandstone capped with Moenkopi sandstone and caked with a stucco of red mud located near Moab, Utah (). The Towers are named for a miner who lived near them in the 1880s. The Tower is world renowned as a subject for photography and for its classic rock climbing routes.[1][2]
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The nearest town is Moab, Utah about 16 miles (26 km) to the southwest. The area is generally accessed from Fisher Towers Road off of Route 128 which runs along the Colorado River between I-70 and Route 191. Castleton Tower is visible approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) to the southwest from different parts of the Fisher Tower's area.
The Towers lie just south of a larger mesa which they are emerging from on a geological times scale. North 1,000 feet (300 m) of the main formation there is a Tower which has only partway emerged from the mesa. The Towers are composed of three major fins of rock that run from the northeast closer to the mesa out to the southwest and into a desert valley. The fins are between 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 and 610 m) long and separated from each other by about 1,000 feet (300 m). Each fin contains multiple towers, a number of which have been named.
Since the Fisher Towers are most often seen and approached from the north its fitting to describe them from north to south. The eastern most section of the northern most fin is dominated by a tower known as the King Fisher. The ridge line of the fin drops considerable before reaching the western formation called Ancient Arts. The Ancient Arts is composed of four separate summits the most striking of which is the cork screw summit. The Middle fin is split into two very distinct towers known as Echo Tower in the east and Cottontail in the west. The southern most fin is best known for containing the Fisher Towers with the greatest elevation and prominence, a structure named The Titan. The eastern portion of the southern fin is the less well known Oracle which physically connects back to the mesa.
The area has many other named structures, such as the Cobra and the Sundial, both found in between King Fisher and Echo Tower. Each consists of balanced rocks perched above smaller supports. Another example is the Lizard Rock, a 60-foot (18 m) tower near the parking lot.
Development of the Towers as climbing areas start in the early 1960s. The first notable technical climb was a route called the Finger of Fate, which summits The Titan and was later featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.[3] The Towers are also very well known for the cork screw summit of the Ancient Arts tower, most commonly accessed by the Stolen Chimney Route. Photographs of the unusual cork screw summit have been extensively published in many settings including mainstream advertisements.
The Fisher Towers were featured in the opening scene of Austin Powers in Goldmember. The scene was a self-parody of the Austin Powers series, a film within the film. Austin Powers is featured in a bio-pic called Austinpussy (a parody of the James Bond film Octopussy) directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise as Austin Powers, Gwyneth Paltrow as Dixie Normous, Kevin Spacey as Dr. Evil, Danny DeVito as Mini-Me, and John Travolta as Goldmember.
Television commercials, advertisements, and even scenes from famous movies have been filmed in the area of Moab, Utah (where the Fisher Towers are located).