It outcrops in the Raton Basin of northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

[1] The formation consists of a light gray, soft, friable sandstone and shale, which is carbonaceous in part, and may have coal seams or thin coal beds.

Mining began in 1870 in the rich Raton coal bed near the base of the Vermejo Formation.

[5] The bed contained bituminous coals of coking quality.

[6][7] The Vermejo Formation was originally named by W. T. Lee in 1913 in the American Journal of Science.