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USA: Southwest favorites (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada)

246 images Created 8 Jun 2011

Favorite Southwest USA photos by Tom Dempsey include the following desert, canyon, and mountain scenes in the US states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado (Four Corners Region), and Nevada.

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  • Mesa Arch glows at sunrise in Canyonlands National Park, Utah in 2006. Panorama stitched from five images. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06UT_2137-2141pan_Mesa-Arch_Canyonla...jpg
  • Zebra Slot Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA. From Hole-in-the-Rock Road, hike east on a well-trodden but unmarked path, 5 miles round trip with 450 feet total gain to Zebra Slot. Multiple overlapping photos were stitched to make this panorama.
    20.10US1-0208-219-Pano.jpg
  • Harris's Hawk. Raptor Free Flight show, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952.
    23AZ-155.jpg
  • The Maroon Bells and yellow aspen leaves reflect in Maroon Lake at sunrise. The Maroon Bells are two adjacent peaks of the Elk Mountains: Maroon Peak 14,163 feet on left, seen behind North Maroon Peak 14,019 feet, in Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness of White River National Forest. The mountains are on the border between Pitkin County and Gunnison County, about 12 miles southwest of Aspen, in Colorado, USA.
    1709US2-076_Maroon-Lake_CO.jpg
  • West and East Mitten Buttes and Merrick Butte punctuate the horizon beyond a balanced rock in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA. The Western movie director John Ford set several popular films here. This image was stitched from multiple overlapping photos.
    1804SW2-044-46-Pano.jpg
  • Double Arch erodes from Entrada Sandstone in Arches National Park, Utah. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010. A thick underground salt bed underlies the creation of the park's many arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths. Some 300 million years ago, a sea flowed into the area and eventually evaporated to create the salt bed up to thousands of feet thick. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 210 million years ago) desert conditions deposited the vast Navajo Sandstone. On top of that, about 140 million years ago, the Entrada Sandstone was deposited from stream and windblown sediments. Later, over 5000 feet (1500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and then mostly worn away, leaving the park's arches eroded mostly within the Entrada formation.
    06UT_3078-Double_Arch.jpg
  • Sunset seen through gnarly pine trees at Mather Point Overlook, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Starting at least 5 to 17 million years ago, erosion by the Colorado River has exposed a column of distinctive rock layers, which date back nearly two billion years at the base of Grand Canyon. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet), 277 miles  long and up to 18 miles wide.
    1804SW-2029.jpg
  • White capped hoodoos with yellow base. Paint Mines Interpretive Park is run by El Paso County, near Calhan, Colorado. Its colorful sediments outwashed from the Rockies 55 million years ago. The Paint Mines are named for their colorful clays that were collected by American Indians to make paint. Oxidized iron compounds cause brightly colored bands in various layers of clay. When outcrops erode, a hard capstone allows columns of clay to be preserved beneath, creating fantastic spires called hoodoos. Selenite (gypsum) contributes to the color, and white quartzitic crystals dazzle the eye.
    1709US1-2051_Paint-Mines_CO.jpg
  • The Wave, Coyote Buttes, located on the Arizona side of Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, which is public land managed by the United States BLM. Over 190 million years, ancient sand dune layers calcified into rock and created "The Wave." Iron oxides bled through this Jurassic-age Navajo sandstone to create the salmon color. Hematite and goethite added yellows, oranges, browns and purples. Over thousands of years, water cut through the ridge above and exposed a channel that was further scoured by windblown sand into the smooth curves that today look like ocean swells and waves. For the permit required to hike to "The Wave", contact the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who limits access to protect this fragile geologic formation. Image was published in 2009 for a surgeon's book on the intersection of science and faith. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    03AZ-05-25-The-Wave_Coyote-Buttes.jpg
  • The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. It's just west of Tucson, Arizona, USA.
    23AZ-243.jpg
  • The sandstone cliffs of the Court of the Patriarchs tower over the Virgin River in Zion National Park, near Springdale, Utah, USA. The North Fork of the Virgin River carved spectacular Zion Canyon through reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone up to half a mile (800 m) deep and 15 miles (24 km) long. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. Zion and Kolob canyon geology includes 9 formations covering 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, from warm, shallow seas, streams, lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments. Mormons discovered the canyon in 1858 and settled in the early 1860s. U.S. President Taft declared it Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. In 1918, the name changed to Zion (an ancient Hebrew name for Jerusalem), which became a National Park in 1919. The Kolob section (a 1937 National Monument) was added to Zion National Park in 1956. Unusually diverse plants and animals congregate here where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet. (Panorama stitched from 6 photos.)
    11UT1-2007-12pan_Zion-NP-Utah.jpg
  • The sun backlights Corona Arch, on BLM federal land near Moab, Utah, USA. Hike 3 miles round trip up Bootlegger Canyon to the half-freestanding Corona Arch, also called Little Rainbow Bridge, which has an impressive opening of 140 feet wide by 105 feet high. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1403UT-256_Corona-Arch.jpg
  • Kin Kletso Great House was built around 1120-1130 AD (based on tree-ring dates) with 65 rooms and five kivas, but was abandoned by the 1150s AD. Chaco Culture National Historical Park hosts the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Chaco Canyon is in remote northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, USA. From 850 AD to 1250 AD, Chaco Canyon advanced then declined as a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 1800s. Climate change may have led to its abandonment, beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. This panorama was stitched from 3 overlapping photos.
    1403NM-0354-356pan_Kin-Kletso_Chaco-...jpg
  • Walk the trail behind Lower Emerald Pool waterfall in Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA. The North Fork of the Virgin River carved spectacular Zion Canyon through reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone up to half a mile (800 m) deep and 15 miles (24 km) long. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. Zion and Kolob canyon geology includes 9 formations covering 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, from warm, shallow seas, streams, lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments. Mormons discovered the canyon in 1858 and settled in the early 1860s. U.S. President Taft declared it Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. In 1918, the name changed to Zion (an ancient Hebrew name for Jerusalem), which became a National Park in 1919. The Kolob section (a 1937 National Monument) was added to Zion National Park in 1956. Unusually diverse plants and animals congregate here where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet. The panorama was stitched from 5 overlapping photos.
    1303UT-1236-1240pan_Lower-Emerald-Fa...jpg
  • A ray of sunlight pierces Upper Antelope Canyon, near Page, Arizona, USA. Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park. Panorama stitched from three overlapping images. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06AZ_4062-4064pan_Upper-Antelope-Can...jpg
  • Four doorways connect rooms at Pueblo Bonito, 828-1126 AD Great House, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA. Pueblo Bonito is a monumental public building (Puebloan Great House) occupied from around 828 to 1126 AD, still standing in Chaco Canyon. The huge D-shaped complex of Pueblo Bonito enclosed two plazas with dozens of ceremonial kivas, plus 600 rooms towering 4 and 5 stories above the valley floor. The functions of this building included ceremony, administration, trading, storage, hospitality, communications, astronomy, and burial, but few living quarters. Chaco Culture NHP hosts the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in remote northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington. From 850 AD to 1250 AD, Chaco Canyon advanced then declined as a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 1800s. Climate change may have led to its abandonment, beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. Two images were combined (stitched) to increase depth of focus from near to far doorways.
    1403NM-0294-295stitch_Pueblo-Bonito_...jpg
  • Lower Antelope Canyon (or "the Corkscrew") is a beautiful slot canyon in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. Flash floods and other erosion have carved Navajo Sandstone into this natural rock cathedral.
    11AZ1-2245_Lower-Antelope-Canyon.jpg
  • A seasonal waterfall plunges from Weeping Rock in Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA. The North Fork of the Virgin River carved spectacular Zion Canyon through reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone up to half a mile (800 m) deep and 15 miles (24 km) long. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. Zion and Kolob canyon geology includes 9 formations covering 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, from warm, shallow seas, streams, lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments. Mormons discovered the canyon in 1858 and settled in the early 1860s. U.S. President Taft declared it Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. In 1918, the name changed to Zion (an ancient Hebrew name for Jerusalem), which became a National Park in 1919. The Kolob section (a 1937 National Monument) was added to Zion National Park in 1956. Unusually diverse plants and animals congregate here where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet.
    11UT1-2277_Zion-NP-Utah.jpg
  • Lower Calf Creek Falls in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA.
    94UT-07-02_Lower-Calf-Creek-Falls.jpg
  • Sunset spotlights the Queen's Garden, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. The hoodoo on the left looks like a standing profile of Queen Elizabeth with gown. Bryce is actually not a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The ancient river and lake bed sedimentary rocks erode into hoodoos by the force of wind, water, and ice. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06UT_6106-Bryce-NP-Sunset.jpg
  • Delicate Arch and La Sal Mountains, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA. A thick underground salt bed underlies the creation of the park's many arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths. Some 300 million years ago, a sea flowed into the area and eventually evaporated to create the salt bed up to thousands of feet thick. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 210 million years ago) desert conditions deposited the vast Navajo Sandstone. On top of that, about 140 million years ago, the Entrada Sandstone was deposited from stream and windblown sediments. Later, over 5000 feet (1500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and then mostly worn away, leaving the park's arches eroded mostly within the Entrada formation.
    1804SW-0689.jpg
  • The majestic Hickman Natural Bridge has a span of 133 feet. The hike is 1.8 miles round trip with 400 feet gain in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. This panorama was stitched from 6 overlapping photos.
    1503SW-0264-69pan_Hickman-Natural-Br...jpg
  • See fantastic hoodoos and a great slot canyon in Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, in New Mexico, USA. Hike the easy Cave Loop Trail plus Slot Canyon Trail side trip (3 miles round trip), 40 miles southwest of Santa Fe, on the Pajarito Plateau. Distinctive cone-shaped caprocks protect soft pumice and tuff beneath. Geologically, the Tent Rocks are made of Peralta Tuff, formed from volcanic ash, pumice, and pyroclastic debris deposited over 1000 feet thick from the Jemez Volcanic Field, 7 million years ago. Kasha-Katuwe means "white cliffs" in the Pueblo language Keresan.
    1403NM-1147_Kasha-Katuwe_Tent-Rocks-...jpg
  • Skyline Arch eroded within the Slick Rock member of Entrada Sandstone in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. Fractal branching of a twisted dead tree frames the arch. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06UT_2264-Skyline-Arch.jpg
  • Large columns, in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in the Guadalupe Mountains, Chihuahuan Desert, southeast New Mexico, USA. Hike in on your own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center. Geology: 4 to 6 million years ago, an acid bath in the water table slowly dissolved the underground rooms of Carlsbad Caverns, which then drained along with the uplift of the Guadalupe Mountains. The Guadalupe Mountains are the uplifted part of the ancient Capitan Reef which thrived along the edge of an inland sea more than 250 million years ago during Permian time. Carlsbad Caverns National Park protects part of the Capitan Reef, one of the best-preserved, exposed Permian-age fossil reefs in the world. The park's magnificent speleothems (cave formations) are due to rain and snowmelt soaking through soil and limestone rock, dripping into a cave, evaporating and depositing dissolved minerals. Drip-by-drip, over the past million years or so, Carlsbad Cavern has slowly been decorating itself. The slowest drips tend to stay on the ceiling (as stalactites, soda straws, draperies, ribbons or curtains). The faster drips are more likely to decorate the floor (with stalagmites, totem poles, flowstone, rim stone dams, lily pads, shelves, and cave pools). Today, due to the dry desert climate, few speleothems inside any Guadalupe Mountains caves are wet enough to actively grow. Most speleothems inside Carlsbad Cavern would have been much more active during the last ice age-up to around 10,000 years ago, but are now mostly inactive.
    1404NM-5119_Carlsbad-Caverns-NP.jpg
  • A hiker chimneys up the narrow walls of Zebra Slot Canyon, in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA. Directions to unmarked trailhead for Zebra and Tunnel Slot Canyons: From Escalante town, drive 6 miles east on Highway 12, turn right on Hole-in-the-Rock Road, drive 7.8 miles to the third cattle guard and park on west side of road. Hike east on well-trodden but unmarked path, 5 miles round trip to Zebra Slot, plus an optional 3 miles round trip to Tunnel Slot (750 feet gain over 8 miles), using map from GSENM Visitor Center or canyoneeringusa.com.
    1303UT-2019_Zebra-Slot_Grand-Stairca...jpg
  • West and East Mitten Buttes and Merrick Butte at sunset in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA. The Western movie director John Ford set several popular films here.
    1804SW2-214-p1.jpg
  • Sunset illuminates sandstone and houseboats at sunset on Lake Powell, which is impounded by Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River on the Utah and Arizona border, USA. Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. The dam generates electrical power, controls flooding, and provides water recreation, at the cost of various environmental changes.
    11AZ1-2020_Lake-Powell_Glen-Canyon-N...jpg
  • White Sands National Monument preserves one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here in the northern Chihuahuan Desert rises the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Visit the park 16 miles southwest of Alamogordo, NM, USA. White Sands National Monument preserves 40% of the gpysum dune field, the remainder of which is on White Sands Missile Range and military land closed to the public. Geology: The park’s gypsum was originally deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea that covered this area 250 million years ago. Eventually turned into stone, these gypsum-bearing marine deposits were uplifted into a giant dome 70 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains were formed. Beginning 10 million years ago, the center of this dome began to collapse and create the Tularosa Basin. The remaining sides of the original dome now form the San Andres and Sacramento mountain ranges that ring the basin. The common mineral gypsum is rarely found in the form of sand because rain dissolves it in runoff which usually drains to the sea; but mountains enclose the Tularosa Basin and trap surface runoff. The pure gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate) comes from ephemeral Lake Lucero (a playa), which is the remnant of ice-age Lake Otero (now mostly an alkali flat) in the western side of the park. Evaporating water (up to 80 inches per year) leaves behind selenite crystals which reach lengths of up to three feet (1 m)! Weathering breaks the selenite crystals into sand-size gypsum grains that are carried away by prevailing winds from the southwest, forming white dunes. Several types of small animals have evolved white coloration that camouflages them in the dazzling white desert; and various plants have specially adapted to shifting sands. Based on an application by two US Senators from New Mexico, UNESCO honored the monument on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in 2008.
    1404NM-6003_White-Sands-NM.jpg
  • Tower Arch, in Klondike Bluffs, in Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA.
    1804SW-0216.jpg
  • The photographer admires West & East Mittens and Merrick Butte at sunrise in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA. The Western movie director John Ford set several popular films here.
    1804SW2-305.jpg
  • Artwork inside Desert View Watchtower, in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. The artwork on the lower gallery (the first landing) represents the physical and spiritual origins of Hopi life, as painted by Fred Kabotie, a Hopi from second Mesa. Desert View Watchtower was built by architect Mary Colter in 1932.  Inspired by the architecture of the ancestral Puebloan people of the Colorado Plateau, Mary Colter modelled the tower after Hovenweep and the Round Tower of Mesa Verde, plus she integrated works by other artists. This image was stitched from multiple overlapping photos.
    1804SW-1544-51-Pano.jpg
  • Grand Canyon Supergroup stromatolite pattern, on the fascinating Trail of Time interpretive exhibit on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Starting west of Yavapai Geology Museum, walk for 1.3 miles on the paved trail backward in time from today toward the oldest rock in Grand Canyon, Elves Chasm gneiss, 1.840 billion years old. Or begin east of Verkamp's Visitor Center, walking forward in time toward the youngest rock in the Grand Canyon, Kaibab Limestone, 270 million years old. Starting at least 5 to 17 million years ago, erosion by the Colorado River has exposed a column of distinctive rock layers, which date back nearly two billion years at the base of Grand Canyon. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon 6000 feet deep, 277 miles  long and up to 18 miles wide.
    1804SW-1671.jpg
  • Heritage House is an 1895 Queen Anne-style Victorian home in Kanab, Utah, USA. Heritage House, built in 1894 for Henry Bowman by John Rider, has been painstakingly restored to its original splendor and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Kanab Heritage House reflects the prosperity of two of Kanab's early Mormon residents. Henry Bowman built it but lived there only two years before going on a mission. He sold the property to Thomas Chamberlain, who led the Mormons' United Order and cared for his six wives and 55 children. Directions: Go to the corner of East 100 South and South Main Street in Kanab; phone 435-644-3966; free tour in summer. Fact: Kanab is home of the USA's first all-woman town council, elected in 1911, with Mary Woolley Chamberlain as mayor.
    1303UT-4016.jpg
  • Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument, Utah, USA. The cliffs that enclose the upper end of Indian Creek Canyon are covered by hundreds of ancient Indian petroglyphs (rock carvings), one of the largest, best preserved and accessible groups in the Southwest USA. The petroglyphs have a mixture of human (feet, figures), animal (deer, pronghorn, buffalo, horse), abstract and material forms of uncertain meaning. Starting about 2000 years ago, humans have chipped away the dark natural desert varnish to reveal lighter colored Wingate sandstone beneath.
    06UT_3083-Newspaper_Rock.jpg
  • Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls trail 6 miles round trip (600 feet gain), in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA. The beautiful cascade drops 126 feet (38 meters) from sandstone cliffs stained with fascinating patterns of desert varnish. Directions: From the town of Escalante, drive 15 miles east on Scenic Byway 12 to Calf Creek Recreation Area day-use parking and campground. More about desert varnish: Manganese-rich desert varnish requires thousands of years to coat a rock face that is protected from precipitation and wind erosion. The varnish likely originates from airborne dust and external surface runoff, including: clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese (Mn) and/or iron (Fe), sand grains, trace elements, and usually organic matter. Streaks of black varnish often occur where water cascades over cliffs, but wind doesn't sculpt its shape. Varnish color varies from shades of brown to black. Manganese-poor, iron-rich varnishes are red to orange, and intermediate concentrations are shaded brown. Manganese-oxidizing microbes may explain the unusually high concentration of manganese in black desert varnish, which can be smooth and shiny where densest. The panorama was stitched from 3 overlapping photos.
    1303UT-2233-2235pan_Lower-Calf-Creek...jpg
  • Mesa Arch frames buttes back lit by sunrise at Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA.
    06UT_2122_Mesa-Arch_Canyonlands-NP.jpg
  • Ice on branches, Lower Emerald Pool waterfall, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA. The North Fork of the Virgin River carved spectacular Zion Canyon through reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone up to half a mile (800 m) deep and 15 miles (24 km) long. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. Zion and Kolob canyon geology includes 9 formations covering 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, from warm, shallow seas, streams, lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments. Mormons discovered the canyon in 1858 and settled in the early 1860s. U.S. President Taft declared it Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. In 1918, the name changed to Zion (an ancient Hebrew name for Jerusalem), which became a National Park in 1919. The Kolob section (a 1937 National Monument) was added to Zion National Park in 1956. Unusually diverse plants and animals congregate here where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet.
    1303UT-1186.jpg
  • Eroded badlands of Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, south of Farmington, in San Juan County, New Mexico, USA. This fantasy world of strange rock formations is made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. These rock layers have weathered into eerie hoodoos (pinnacles, spires, and cap rocks). This was once a riverine delta west of an ancient sea, the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of New Mexico 70 million years ago. Swamps built up organic material which became beds of lignite. Water disappeared and left behind a 1400-foot (430 m) layer of jumbled sandstone, mudstone, shale, and coal. The ancient sedimentary deposits were uplifted with the rest of the Colorado Plateau, starting about 25 million years ago. Waters of the last ice age eroded the hoodoos now visible. The high desert widerness of Bisti is managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This panorama was stitched from 3 overlapping photos.
    1403NM-0064-66pan_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wi...jpg
  • Pottery and dancing figures for sale at Visitor Center & Museum at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA.
    1804SW-1481.jpg
  • Druid Arch, in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Monticello, Utah, USA.
    1804SW-0981.jpg
  • Swirling cirrus clouds over Very Large Array (VLA) radio astronomy telescope, near Socorro, New Mexico, USA. The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories. Visit the VLA on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, in New Mexico, USA. US Route 60 passes through the scientific complex, which welcomes visitors. The VLA is a set of 27 movable radio antennas on tracks in a Y-shape. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter. After being built 1973-1980, the VLA’s electronics and software were significantly upgraded from 2001-2012 by at least an order of magnitude in both sensitivity and radio-frequency coverage. The VLA is a component of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about interstellar radio emission. The VLA was prominently featured in the 1997 film "Contact," a classic science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel, with Jodie Foster portraying the film's protagonist, Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds strong evidence of extraterrestrial life.
    1404NM-6133-p1_Very-Large-Array-VLA.jpg
  • On the Havasupai Indian Reservation, Havasu Falls, Creek, and Canyon flow into Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    99AZ-07-33-Havasu-Falls-MASTER.jpg
  • Little Wild Horse Canyon, Utah. A short drive from Goblin Valley State Park Campground is a great 9 mile loop hike up Little Wild Horse Canyon and back down Bell Canyon. The hike requires some scrambling up and down sandstone ledges, through occasional shallow water holes and fascinating narrow slots. The Navajo and Wingate sandstone of the San Rafael Reef was uplifted fifty million years ago into a striking bluff which now runs from Price to Hanksville, bisected by Interstate 70 at a breach fifteen miles west of the town of Green River. The San Rafael Reef (and Swell) is one of the wildest places left in Utah. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06UT_2001_Little-Wild-Horse-Canyon.jpg
  • Landscape Arch, on Devils Garden Trail, Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah, USA. A thick underground salt bed underlies the creation of the park's many arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths. Some 300 million years ago, a sea flowed into the area and eventually evaporated to create the salt bed up to thousands of feet thick. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift to the northeast. During the Early Jurassic (about 210 million years ago) desert conditions deposited the vast Navajo Sandstone. On top of that, about 140 million years ago, the Entrada Sandstone was deposited from stream and windblown sediments. Later, over 5000 feet (1500 m) of younger sediments were deposited and then mostly worn away, leaving the park's arches eroded mostly within the Entrada formation. This panorama was stitched from 6 overlapping photos.
    1403UT-162-167pan_Landscape-Arch_Uta...jpg
  • Mount Ellen, at the northern end of the Henry Mountains, rises prominently to the south of Goblin Valley State Park. Admire fanciful hoodoos, mushroom shapes, and rock pinnacles in Goblin Valley State Park, in Emery County between the towns of Green River and Hanksville, in central Utah, USA. The Goblin rocks eroded from Entrada Sandstone, which is comprised of alternating layers of sandstone (cross-bedded by former tides), siltstone, and shale debris which were eroded from former highlands and redeposited in beds on a former tidal flat.
    06UT_1112-Goblin-Valley.jpg
  • The Desert Primrose (or Dune Evening Primrose, Oenothera deltoides) flower blooms white with yellow center, opening in the early evening and closing in mid-morning. Valley of Fire State Park, dedicated in 1935, is the oldest state park in Nevada. Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park's fiery red sandstone formations. The park also boasts fascinating patterns in limestone, shale, and conglomerate rock. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610-790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation.
    11NV2-4021_Valley-of-Fire-SP-Nevada.jpg
  • A cottonwood tree frames Hunter Arch. Hunter Canyon hiking trail, on BLM land, Moab Kane Creek Blvd, Moab, Utah, USA. The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is part of the United States Department of the Interior.
    1804SW-0117.jpg
  • Purple flower close-up, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada, USA. Formation of Lake Mead began in 1935, less than a year before Hoover Dam was completed along the Colorado River. The area surrounding Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936. In 1964, the area was expanded and became the first National Recreation Area established by US Congress. Three desert ecosystems meet in Lake Mead NRA: Mojave Desert, Great Basin Desert, and Sonoran Desert.
    1303NV-4058.jpg
  • Wavy sandstone pattern by Carol Dempsey, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, USA. Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park's fiery red sandstone formations. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610-790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation.
    99NV-C2-13-wavy-sandstone_Valley-of-...jpg
  • Kivas for Puebloan religious rituals. Chetro Ketl was a massive stone building (Puebloan Great House) occupied from 950-1250s AD, now preserved at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA. This park hosts the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Chaco Canyon is in remote northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, USA. From 850 AD to 1250 AD, Chaco Canyon advanced then declined as a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 1800s. Climate change may have led to its abandonment, beginning with a 50-year drought starting in 1130. This panorama was stitched from 7 overlapping photos.
    1403NM-0169-175pan_Chetro-Ketl_Chaco...jpg
  • Fossilized sand dunes, Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, Arizona For licensing options, please inquire.
    03AZ-05-08-The-Wave_Coyote-Buttes.jpg
  • The Wave, Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, Arizona. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010. For licensing options, please inquire.
    03AZ-04-31_The-Wave-hiker.jpg
  • A hiker crosses Willis Creek in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, near Cannonville, Utah, USA
    06UT_6002_Willis-Creek_Grand-Stairca...jpg
  • The vetch flower is in the pea family. Goblin Valley State Park, in Emery County between the towns of Green River and Hanksville, in central Utah, USA. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    06UT_2037-Vetch-flower_pea-family.jpg
  • Desert Primrose (or Dune Evening Primrose,<br />
Oenothera deltoides) flowers bloom white with yellow center, opening in the early evening and closing in mid-morning. Valley of Fire State Park (dedicated in 1935) is the oldest state park in Nevada. Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park’s fiery red sandstone formations. The park also has fascinating patterns in limestone, shale, and conglomerate rock. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610–790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation.
    11NV2-4074_Valley-of-Fire-SP-Nevada.jpg
  • Lower Antelope Canyon (or "the Corkscrew") is a beautiful slot canyon in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. Flash floods and other erosion have carved Navajo Sandstone into this natural rock cathedral. (Panorama stitched from 2 photos.)
    11AZ1-2308-09pan_Lower-Antelope-Cany...jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.")
    06AZ_4186-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • Mesa Arch bounces golden light at sunrise in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA.
    06UT_2181_Mesa-Arch_Canyonlands-NP.jpg
  • Sunrise brightens the dark indigo sky with orange behind a silhouette of a tree with bared roots in Bryce National Park, Utah, USA. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010. Published September 29, 2016 in Amateur Photographer magazine, London, UK, "Expert guide to silhouette photography": http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/technique/camera_skills/silhouette-photography-taking-shape-96009
    06UT_6130-Bryce-NP-Sunrise.jpg
  • A chock stone is wedged in Bull Valley Gorge in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA.
    90UT-15-25-Bull-Valley-Gorge.jpg
  • Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona: The Heart of the Rocks Loop Trail (7 to 9 miles) makes a perfect day hike through the hoodoos here. 27 million years ago, huge volcanic eruptions laid down 2000 feet of ash and pumice in this area, which fused into a rock known as rhyolitic tuff.  Since then this rock has eroded into fascinating hoodoos, spires, and balanced rocks which lie above the surrounding desert grasslands at elevations between 5100 and 7800 feet. At Chiricahua, the Sonoran desert meets the Chihuahuan desert, and the Rocky Mountains meet Mexico's Sierra Madre, making one of the most biologically diverse areas in the northern hemisphere. While we drove the dirt road to nearby Portal, Arizona, Carol saw a mountain lion crossing the road! Other animals here include javelina, coatimundi, bears, skunks, and deer. Published in "Light Travel: Photography on the Go" book by Tom Dempsey 2009, 2010.
    03AZ-13-07-Chiricahua-NM.jpg
  • Sunrise light strikes orange and white hoodoos in Bryce National Park, Utah, USA. Bryce is actually not a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The ancient river and lake bed sedimentary rocks erode into hoodoos by the force of wind, water, and ice.
    06UT_6149-Bryce-NP-Sunrise.jpg
  • West & East Mittens and Merrick Butte at sunrise in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA. The Western movie director John Ford set several popular films here.
    1804SW2-264.jpg
  • Totem Pole and Yei-Bi-Chei rock formations in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, USA. The eastern formation resembles Navajo dancers emerging from a Hogan as part of the spiritual "Yei-Bi-Chei" dance performed during a sacred nine-day ceremony called the "Night Way Ceremony."
    1804SW-1362.jpg
  • A tiny hiker (silhouetted in black) crosses beneath massive Broken Bow Arch, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah, USA.
    00SW-03-26-Broken-Bow-Arch_Willow-Cr...jpg
  • Dolls Theater, soda straws and columns, in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in the Guadalupe Mountains, Chihuahuan Desert, southeast New Mexico, USA. Hike in on your own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center. Geology: 4 to 6 million years ago, an acid bath in the water table slowly dissolved the underground rooms of Carlsbad Caverns, which then drained along with the uplift of the Guadalupe Mountains. The Guadalupe Mountains are the uplifted part of the ancient Capitan Reef which thrived along the edge of an inland sea more than 250 million years ago during Permian time. Carlsbad Caverns National Park protects part of the Capitan Reef, one of the best-preserved, exposed Permian-age fossil reefs in the world. The park's magnificent speleothems (cave formations) are due to rain and snowmelt soaking through soil and limestone rock, dripping into a cave, evaporating and depositing dissolved minerals. Drip-by-drip, over the past million years or so, Carlsbad Cavern has slowly been decorating itself. The slowest drips tend to stay on the ceiling (as stalactites, soda straws, draperies, ribbons or curtains). The faster drips are more likely to decorate the floor (with stalagmites, totem poles, flowstone, rim stone dams, lily pads, shelves, and cave pools). Today, due to the dry desert climate, few speleothems inside any Guadalupe Mountains caves are wet enough to actively grow. Most speleothems inside Carlsbad Cavern would have been much more active during the last ice age-up to around 10,000 years ago, but are now mostly inactive.
    1404NM-5190_Carlsbad-Caverns-NP.jpg
  • Sunrise light strikes orange and white hoodoos in Bryce National Park, Utah, USA. Bryce is actually not a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The ancient river and lake bed sedimentary rocks erode into hoodoos by the force of wind, water, and ice. (Panorama stitched from 4 photos.)
    06UT_7046-7049pan_Bryce-NP-sunrise.jpg
  • The "Fire Wave" is a one mile round trip walk in the White Domes area of Valley of Fire State Park, the oldest state park in Nevada (dedicated in 1935). Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park's fiery red sandstone formations. The park also boasts fascinating patterns in limestone, shale, and conglomerate rock. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610-790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation. (Panorama stitched from 8 photos.)
    11NV1-1191-1198pan_Fire-Wave_Valley-...jpg
  • Sunset light illuminates colorful orange, pink, yellow, and white sandstone in White Domes area of Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, USA. Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park's fiery red sandstone formations. The park also boasts fascinating patterns in limestone, shale, and conglomerate rock. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610-790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation. (Panorama stitched from 19 photos.)
    11NV1-1467-85pan_Valley-of-Fire-SP-N...jpg
  • Admire fanciful hoodoos, mushroom shapes, and rock pinnacles in Goblin Valley State Park, in Emery County between the towns of Green River and Hanksville, in central Utah, USA. The Goblin rocks eroded from Entrada Sandstone, which is comprised of alternating layers of sandstone (cross-bedded by former tides), siltstone, and shale debris which were eroded from former highlands and redeposited in beds on a former tidal flat.
    06UT_1054-55pan_Goblin-Valley.jpg
  • Sunrise light strikes orange and white hoodoos in Bryce National Park, Utah, USA. Bryce is actually not a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The ancient river and lake bed sedimentary rocks erode into hoodoos by the force of wind, water, and ice.
    06UT_6158-Bryce-NP-Sunrise.jpg
  • Colorado River, seen from Lipan Point on South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Grand Canyon began forming at least 5 to 17 million years ago and now exposes a geologic wonder, a column of well-defined rock layers dating back nearly two billion years at the base. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet / 1800 meters), 277 miles (446 km) long and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide.
    11AZ1-3125_Grand-Canyon-NP-Arizona.jpg
  • Spring snow coats red sandstone and melts into a waterfall along West Rim Spring and the West Rim Trail, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, USA. The North Fork of the Virgin River carved spectacular Zion Canyon through reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone up to half a mile (800 m) deep and 15 miles (24 km) long. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. Zion and Kolob canyon geology includes 9 formations covering 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation, from warm, shallow seas, streams, lakes, vast deserts, and dry near-shore environments. Mormons discovered the canyon in 1858 and settled in the early 1860s. U.S. President Taft declared it Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. In 1918, the name changed to Zion (an ancient Hebrew name for Jerusalem), which became a National Park in 1919. The Kolob section (a 1937 National Monument) was added to Zion National Park in 1956. Unusually diverse plants and animals congregate here where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert meet.
    11UT1-2112-13pan_Zion-NP-Utah.jpg
  • Lower Antelope Canyon (or "the Corkscrew") is a beautiful slot canyon in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. Flash floods and other erosion have carved Navajo Sandstone into this natural rock cathedral.
    11AZ1-2240_Lower-Antelope-Canyon.jpg
  • Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls trail 6 miles round trip (600 feet gain), in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA. The beautiful cascade drops 126 feet (38 meters) from sandstone cliffs stained with fascinating patterns of desert varnish. Directions: From the town of Escalante, drive 15 miles east on Scenic Byway 12 to Calf Creek Recreation Area day-use parking and campground. More about desert varnish: Manganese-rich desert varnish requires thousands of years to coat a rock face that is protected from precipitation and wind erosion. The varnish likely originates from airborne dust and external surface runoff, including: clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese (Mn) and/or iron (Fe), sand grains, trace elements, and usually organic matter. Streaks of black varnish often occur where water cascades over cliffs, but wind doesn't sculpt its shape. Varnish color varies from shades of brown to black. Manganese-poor, iron-rich varnishes are red to orange, and intermediate concentrations are shaded brown. Manganese-oxidizing microbes may explain the unusually high concentration of manganese in black desert varnish, which can be smooth and shiny where densest.
    1303UT-2186.jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.")
    06AZ_4138-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • Lower Antelope Canyon (or "the Corkscrew") is a beautiful slot canyon in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. Flash floods and other erosion have carved Navajo Sandstone into this natural rock cathedral. (Panorama stitched from 2 photos.)
    11AZ1-2233-34pan_Lower-Antelope-Cany...jpg
  • Sunrise light strikes orange and white hoodoos in Bryce National Park, Utah, USA. Bryce is actually not a canyon but a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The ancient river and lake bed sedimentary rocks erode into hoodoos by the force of wind, water, and ice.
    06UT_6150-Bryce-NP-Sunrise.jpg
  • A cactus flower opens a pink blossom with yellow pollen in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah, USA.
    00SW-09-38-pink-cactus-flower.jpg
  • Mesa Arch frames buttes back lit by sunrise at Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA.
    06UT_2191_Mesa-Arch_Canyonlands-NP.jpg
  • Balanced Rock catches golden rays of sunset in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. The Entrada Sandstone at Balanced Rock (128 feet/39 meters high) mounts a caprock of the hard Slick Rock Member upon a base of the Dewey Bridge Member, a mudstone. The snow-dusted La Sal Mountains reach 12,780 feet in elevation, formed as a result of intrusion of igneous rocks and subsequent erosion of the surrounding less-resistant sedimentary rocks.
    06UT_2075_Arches-NP.jpg
  • Mount Ellen, at the northern end of the Henry Mountains, rises prominently to the south of Goblin Valley State Park. Admire fanciful hoodoos, mushroom shapes, and rock pinnacles in Goblin Valley State Park, in Emery County between the towns of Green River and Hanksville, in central Utah, USA. The Goblin rocks eroded from Entrada Sandstone, which is comprised of alternating layers of sandstone (cross-bedded by former tides), siltstone, and shale debris which were eroded from former highlands and redeposited in beds on a former tidal flat.
    06UT_1106-Goblin-Valley.jpg
  • Sunrise seen from Yavapai Point, South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Grand Canyon began forming at least 5 to 17 million years ago and now exposes a geologic wonder, a column of well-defined rock layers dating back nearly two billion years at the base. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet / 1800 meters), 277 miles (446 km) long and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide.
    11AZ1-3171_Grand-Canyon-NP-Arizona.jpg
  • Maricopa Point. Exceptional landscape vistas draw millions of worldwide visitors to the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Grand Canyon began forming at least 5 to 17 million years ago and now exposes a geologic wonder, a column of well-defined rock layers dating back nearly two billion years at the base. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet / 1800 meters), 277 miles (446 km) long and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide.
    11AZ1-3063_Grand-Canyon-NP-Arizona.jpg
  • On the Havasupai Indian Reservation, Havasu Falls, Creek, and Canyon flow into Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. Published in 2013 for a tour brochure by Shogai-kando.com of Japan.
    99AZ-07-31_Havasu-Falls.jpg
  • The Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi) is often wrongly called a "Horned Toad" or "Horny Toad." Photo in Nankoweap Canyon, Arizona, USA.
    06AZ_5101-Short-horned-lizard.jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.") For licensing options, please inquire.
    06AZ_5073-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. Panorama stitched from 2 photos.
    06AZ_5064+66pan_Lower-Antelope-Canyo...jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.")
    06AZ_4171-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • Sunrise seen from Yavapai Point, South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Grand Canyon began forming at least 5 to 17 million years ago and now exposes a geologic wonder, a column of well-defined rock layers dating back nearly two billion years at the base. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet / 1800 meters), 277 miles (446 km) long and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide.
    11AZ1-3167_Grand-Canyon-NP-Arizona.jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.")
    06AZ_4162-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • Goosenecks State Park overlooks a deep meander of the San Juan River near Mexican Hat, Utah, USA. Millions of years ago, the Monument Upwarp forced the river to carve meanders over 1,000 feet deep (300 m) as the surrounding landscape slowly rose in elevation. This image was stitched from multiple overlapping photos.
    1804SW-1101-1107-pano-Edit.jpg
  • Flash floods have eroded a slot of Navajo sandstone into a natural cathedral at Lower Antelope Canyon, in Antelope Canyon Navajo Tribal Park, near Page, Arizona, USA. (The older spelling "Navaho" is no longer used by the Navajo, an American Indian group who call themselves Diné, or Dineh, "The People.")
    06AZ_4143-Lower_Antelope_Canyon.jpg
  • "END SCENIC ROUTE" sign marks the end of the park road but beginning of the spectacular White Domes trail in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, USA. Starting more than 150 million years ago, great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs were compressed, uplifting, faulted, and eroded to form the park's fiery red sandstone formations. The park also boasts fascinating patterns in limestone, shale, and conglomerate rock. The park adjoins Lake Mead National Recreation Area at the Virgin River confluence, at an elevation of 2000 to 2600 feet (610-790 m), 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Las Vegas, USA. Park entry from Interstate 15 passes through the Moapa Indian Reservation.
    11NV1-1371_Valley-of-Fire-SP-Nevada.jpg
  • A creamy white flower with yellow center blooms at Callville Bay, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada, USA. Formation of Lake Mead began in 1935, less than a year before Hoover Dam was completed along the Colorado River. The area surrounding Lake Mead was established as the Boulder Dam Recreation Area in 1936. In 1964, the area was expanded and became the first National Recreation Area established by US Congress. Three desert ecosystems meet in Lake Mead NRA: Mojave Desert, Great Basin Desert, and Sonoran Desert.
    1303NV-4108.jpg
  • Explore colorful fossilized sand dunes in the Paw Hole section of South Coyote Buttes, in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona, USA. The Coyote Buttes area exposes cross-bedded aeolian Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. Various iron oxides bled through the sandstone layers to create a salmon color; hematite and goethite added yellows, oranges, browns, and purples. For the required hiking permit, contact the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM, in Kanab, Utah). Access to this Federal public land is regulated to protect fragile geologic formations. Coyote Buttes are within Vermilion Cliffs National Monument (established in 2000 within Arizona), which is within Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area (established in 1984 spanning across the borders of Utah and Arizona).
    1303AZ-1385.jpg
  • Druid Arch, in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Monticello, Utah, USA.
    1804SW-0903.jpg
  • Rippled brown mud in stream bed near Druid Arch, in Needles District of Canyonlands NP, Monticello, Utah, USA.
    1804SW-1001.jpg
  • Sunset at Mather Point Overlook, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA. Starting at least 5 to 17 million years ago, erosion by the Colorado River has exposed a column of distinctive rock layers, which date back nearly two billion years at the base of Grand Canyon. While the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, the Colorado River and tributaries carved Grand Canyon over a mile deep (6000 feet), 277 miles  long and up to 18 miles wide.
    1804SW-2047.jpg
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