Imagine you are hiking in or traveling through California landscapes viewing tilted layers of sedimentary rocks that are exhibited on surrounding slopes.
What were possible sources for the sediments in the rocks?
How did these dipping layers get lifted up there and then become exposed?

The rock layers can originate from the ocean and other bodies of water for example. These layers can become exposed through plate tectonics.  

Explanation:

If rock layers appear tilted, that is due to some geologic event that occurred after the rocks were originally deposited. The action of plate tectonics, for example, can lift the rocks high and flat.  Uplift like that described in the California landscapes when the layers were lifted high and flat instead of being crunched have puzzled geologists.  It is generally believed to happen because of plate tectonics which tilts or folds the layers of sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock is made of small particles and subsequent hardening of minerals and organic particles on the floor of oceans or other bodies of water, for example.