The high plains of southeastern Colorado are punctuated by buttes and canyons, resulting from geologic processes such as the intrusion of igneous bodies and erosion. Not all buttes in southeastern Colorado were formed as the result of igneous intrusion like those near Two Buttes, Colorado. Teepee like formations in the Pierre Shale near Pueblo and Florence likely formed as sea floor vents millions of years ago when the area was submersed under the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. The many layers representing this transgressing and regressing seaway and its beaches are exposed throughout Colorado.

A highlight of the region includes the picketwire dinosaur trackway located in the Purgatoire River Valley that is managed as part of the Comanche National Grasslands. With over 1,300 dinosaur footprints exposed along the Purgatoire River, this is the largest dinosaur trackway in North America.   

Sand and gravel and stone are the most economically important natural resources found in southeastern Colorado as well as coal, uranium, and some minor metals.