Out of curiosity, have you ever seen a well justified description of how these rock and plateau shapes are actually formed?
I used to think it was just wind erosion, eroding different strata with different material properties accordingly, but like structures around Joshua Tree National Park, even homogeneous strata appear to be shaped and boulders sitting one upon another from nowhere, just tend to boggle the mind. Like the moving rocks in Death Valley floor.
Not really. In general, hoodoo formation has to be a layer of less erodable rock on top of a layer of more erodable rock, and is probably a combination of wind and water erosion. The cap protects the more erodable stuff under it, I would figure. Wikipedia says similar, but not much about the actual formation mechanism. I'm sure that not every set of hoodoos was formed by only one basic mechanism, and the variability of appearance is certainly due to the different kind of substances forming them.