The Park City Formation was deposited across approximately 60,000 square kilometers of northern Utah, western Wyoming, and a small sliver of southwestern Montana.

Dates of this formation span from the late Leonardian to the early Guadalupian epochs of the mid-late Permian (about 280-260 million years ago).

This formation was deposited due to the subsidence of underlying Oquirrh and Sublett basins during the early and middle Paleozoic.

At the time of its deposition, the Park City Formation ran along the western coast of Pangaea, at middle-Northern latitudes.

The last epoch of the Permian is missing from the geologic record in this area, meaning there is a time gap of around 8 million years.

McKelvey and others labeled the Park City and Phosphoria formations as "the most extensive phosphorite beds in the United States."

This is supported by the Park City Formation's presence of Merrillina divergens, a conodont that only occurs at the latest stages of the Permian.

Cephalopod occurrence in the Park City Formation, namely Stacheoceras, Gastrioceras, Goniatites, and Waagenoceras, further supports its age being the latest Permian.