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  • Hoodoos kiss at Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, USA. The Heart of the Rocks Loop Trail (7 to 9 miles) makes an excellent day hike through fascinating arrays of hoodoos. 27 million years ago, huge volcanic eruptions laid down 2000 feet of ash and pumice which fused into rhyolitic tuff. 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.
    03AZ-13-17_Chiricahua_Hoodoos_Kissin...jpg
  • A hiker admires hoodoos at Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, USA. The Heart of the Rocks Loop Trail (7 to 9 miles) makes an excellent day hike through fascinating arrays of hoodoos. 27 million years ago, huge volcanic eruptions laid down 2000 feet of ash and pumice which fused into rhyolitic tuff. 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. For licensing options, please inquire.
    03AZ-12-01_Chiricahua-NM.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
  • A hiker rests on a hoodoo at Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, USA. The Heart of the Rocks Loop Trail (7 to 9 miles) makes an excellent day hike through fascinating arrays of hoodoos. 27 million years ago, huge volcanic eruptions laid down 2000 feet of ash and pumice which fused into rhyolitic tuff. 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.
    03AZ-11-15_Chiricahua-Hoodoos.jpg
  • A foam layer cake spins in a pothole eroded into Nonesuch Shale rock on the Presque Isle River before flowing into Lake Superior. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan, USA. Tannins leached from Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock trees color the water amber and brownish green. Churned soft water (having low mineral content) creates much foam.
    03MI-G0073_Presque-Isle-River_foam-c...jpg
  • Removing the outer layer of a natural Nautilus shell creates a "pearl nautilus" (pearly white with pink hues). Found in the Indian and Pacific oceans, Nautilus pompilius (or chambered nautilus) is a cephalopod mollusk with a spiral, pearly-lined shell with a series of air-filled chambers. The Nautilus is a predator, with a primary diet of shrimp, small fish and crustaceans, which are captured by up to 90 tentacles. Photo from Compass Rose Bed & Breakfast, Coupeville, Washington, USA. This fine 1890 Queen Anne Victorian home, on the National Register of Historic Places, is now an elegant two room bed and breakfast, furnished with antiques and glorious things from around the globe by the hosts, Captain and Mrs. Marshall Bronson.
    1604WHI-424.jpg
  • A foam layer cake spins in a pothole eroded into Nonesuch Shale rock on the Presque Isle River before flowing into Lake Superior. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan, USA. Tannins leached from Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock trees color the water amber and brownish green. Churned soft water (having low mineral content) creates much foam.
    03MI-G0086_Presque-Isle-River_foam-c...jpg
  • A foam layer cake spins in a pothole eroded into Nonesuch Shale rock on the Presque Isle River before flowing into Lake Superior. Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan, USA. Tannins leached from Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock trees color the water amber and brownish green. Churned soft water (having low mineral content) creates much foam.
    03MI-G0081_Presque-Isle-River_foam-c...jpg
  • Red bark of the Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) peals in a pattern to reveal a new orange layer. Lime Kiln Point State Park, San Juan Island, Washington, USA.
    09SJI-060_San-Juan-Island.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 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.
    03AZ-05-21-The-Wave_Coyote-Buttes.jpg
  • Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, eroded sediment layers, 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).
    1403NM-0102_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...jpg
  • Sedimentary layers of the Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation, at Cantwell Cliffs, Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-357-Enhanced-NR.jpg
  • A blue iceberg calved from a glacier shows a layered pattern as it floats in the Southern Ocean offshore from Graham Land, the north part of the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica.
    05ANT-20002.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
  • Natural slate layers are exposed in a slot canyon wall, in the north Pindus Mountains (Pindos or Pindhos), near Mikro Papingo village (or small Papigo), Zagoria, Epirus/Epiros, Greece, Europe. Zagori (Greek: ) is a region and a municipality in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, in northwestern Greece. Zagori contains 45 villages collectively known as Zagoria (Zagorochoria or Zagorohoria).
    01GRE-34-06_Slate-layer-geology-Zago...jpg
  • Intricate honeycombs of weathered sandstone decorate Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW3-091_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Intricate honeycombs of weathered sandstone decorate Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW3-063_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Sandstone erodes into honeycomb depressions in Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0622_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Hike through Grand Wash, in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. Capitol Reef National Park is centered upon the 100-mile-long Waterpocket Fold, the steep eastern limb of the Circle Cliffs Uplift, formed in Late Cretaceous time, during the Laramide Orogeny. Pressure caused by the subduction of the Farallon Plate beneath the North American Plate along the west coast caused several huge folds like this in southeast Utah, USA. Steeply tilted Triassic and Jurassic rocks form the hogbacks of the Waterpocket Fold and Capitol Reef, which is built of dark-red dune-formed Wingate Sandstone, thinly bedded river deposits of the Kayenta Formation, crested by the massive, white, dune-formed Navajo Sandstone. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0493_sandstone-pattern.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).
    1403NM-0016_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...jpg
  • Snail-shaped rock, 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).
    1403NM-0005_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0072_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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
  • 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 6 overlapping photos.
    1403NM-0050-55pan_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wi...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).
    1403NM-0035_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...jpg
  • Stairs descend the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, surrounded by trees with yellowing fall leaves. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone. Panorama stitched from 6 overlapping photos.
    10MAM-112-117pan_Mammoth-Cave-KY.jpg
  • Stairs descend the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, which drips with water and is surrounded by trees with yellowing fall leaves. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-092-p1.jpg
  • This funny vehicle patrols Mammoth Cave National Park, which was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-075.jpg
  • Tourists ascend a stairway in Mammoth Cave National Park, which  was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-060.jpg
  • Stalagmites and stalactites form in Mammoth Cave National Park, which was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-056.jpg
  • Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-019.jpg
  • A man stoops to enter Mammoth Cave. This National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-015.jpg
  • Jurassic sandstone erodes into a honeycomb of rock in Wild Horse Canyon on federal BLM land, San Rafael Swell, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW3-120_Jurassic-honeycomb.jpg
  • Intricate honeycombs of weathered sandstone decorate Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW3-108_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Intricate honeycombs of weathered sandstone decorate Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW3-107_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Sandstone erodes into honeycomb depressions in Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0623_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Sandstone erodes into honeycomb depressions in Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0619_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW-0676_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Driftwood lodges into the sandstone honeycomb weathered over time in Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW-0662_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • A hiker explores beautiful Crack Canyon on public federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. As part of the Colorado Plateau, the San Rafael Swell is a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone (160-175 million years old) that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago. Since then, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, and buttes. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW-0638_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Crack Canyon, on federal BLM land in San Rafael Swell, near Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, USA. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers American public lands.
    1503SW-0640_Crack-Canyon_pattern.jpg
  • Hike through Grand Wash, in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. Capitol Reef National Park is centered upon the 100-mile-long Waterpocket Fold, the steep eastern limb of the Circle Cliffs Uplift, formed in Late Cretaceous time, during the Laramide Orogeny. Pressure caused by the subduction of the Farallon Plate beneath the North American Plate along the west coast caused several huge folds like this in southeast Utah, USA. Steeply tilted Triassic and Jurassic rocks form the hogbacks of the Waterpocket Fold and Capitol Reef, which is built of dark-red dune-formed Wingate Sandstone, thinly bedded river deposits of the Kayenta Formation, crested by the massive, white, dune-formed Navajo Sandstone. Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0497_sandstone-pattern.jpg
  • Honeycomb weathering. Hike to Rim Overlook, in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. (Along the way, don't miss the side trip to majestic Hickman Natural Bridge.) Honeycomb weathering: rainwater soaks into sandstone, dissolves its cement, and redeposits it near the surface as the water evaporates, forming a resistant outer layer, pockmarked with holes into the soft inner layers enlarged by wind and moisture.
    1503SW-0335_Honeycomb-weathering.jpg
  • Cracked mud pattern with pebbles, 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).
    1403SWC-132_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0027_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0024_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0021_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0096_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0082_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0092_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...jpg
  • Mushroom rock, in 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).
    1403NM-0076_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0030_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...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).
    1403NM-0028_Bisti_De-Na-Zin-Wilderne...jpg
  • Stairs descend the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, surrounded by trees with yellowing fall leaves. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone. Panorama stitched from 8 overlapping photos.
    10MAM-103-110pan_Mammoth-Cave-KY.jpg
  • Stairs descend the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, which drips with water and is surrounded by trees with yellowing fall leaves. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-102.jpg
  • A couple climbs stairs of the Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave which drips with water. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-090.jpg
  • Stairs descend the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, surrounded by trees with yellowing fall leaves. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone. Panorama stitched from 4 overlapping photos.
    10MAM-078-81pan_Mammoth-Cave-KY.jpg
  • A cave cricket (Hadenoecus subterraneus) walks a cavern's stone ceiling. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-071.jpg
  • A cave cricket (Hadenoecus subterraneus) walks a cavern's stone ceiling. Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve in 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-067.jpg
  • Flowstone forms abstract shapes in Mammoth Cave National Park, which was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-062.jpg
  • Flowstone formations decorate Mammoth Cave National Park, which was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-049.jpg
  • Tourists file through Mammoth Cave National Park, which  was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-031.jpg
  • Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-003.jpg
  • Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10INDC-05.jpg
  • Mammoth Cave National Park was established in 1941 in Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and international Biosphere Reserve 1990. With over 390 miles (630 km) of passageways, the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System is the longest known in the world. Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of Big Clifty Sandstone. Descending limestone layers include the Girkin Formation, Saint Genevieve Limestone, and Saint Louis Limestone.
    10MAM-034.jpg
  • Devil's Bathtub and footbridge—Old Man's Cave Gorge trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-202.jpg
  • Hocking Hills State Park Visitor Center, Old Man's Cave, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-183.jpg
  • Cement pylon footbridge, Old Man's Cave Gorge trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-116.jpg
  • Neptune's necklace (Hormosira banksii also known as sea grapes or bubbleweed) is a species of seaweed (brown algae, Fucales) found in Australia and New Zealand. Its strings of olive-brown hollow beads have a slimy layer to conserve moisture, and they are commonly found in rock pools at mid-tide levels. Each bead is filled with water to prevent desiccation between tides, plus gas to rise to the sea surface for sunlight and movement in currents. Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia.
    04AUS-30066_sea-necklace-Maria-Islan...jpg
  • A big Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) grows at Lime Kiln Point State Park, San Juan Island, Washington, USA. Lime Kiln Lighthouse first shone in 1914, the last major light established in Washington. The name derived from lime kilns built nearby in the 1860s. The Coast Guard automated Lime Kiln Lighthouse in 1962 to turn on at dusk and off during day. Sitting on rocky shoreline at a height of 55 feet on Haro Strait, the beacon is visible for 17 miles. Red bark of the Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) peals to reveal a new orange layer.
    09SJI-101_San-Juan-Island.jpg
  • Lime Kiln Point State Park, San Juan Island, Washington, USA. Lime Kiln Lighthouse first shone in 1914, the last major light established in Washington. The name derived from lime kilns built nearby in the 1860s. The Coast Guard automated Lime Kiln Lighthouse in 1962 to turn on at dusk and off during day. Sitting on rocky shoreline at a height of 55 feet on Haro Strait, the beacon is visible for 17 miles. Red bark of the Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) peals to reveal a new orange layer.
    09SJI-062_San-Juan-Island.jpg
  • Steps cut through a slot in Cantwell Cliffs, Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-348.jpg
  • Cantwell Cliffs, Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-353.jpg
  • Inside the Rock House cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-316-Enhanced-NR.jpg
  • Inside the Rock House cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-311-Enhanced-NR.jpg
  • Inside the Rock House cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-304.jpg
  • Inside the Rock House cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-290.jpg
  • Inside the Rock House cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-295.jpg
  • Canyon walls overhang at the end of the Gorge Trail in Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve, near Logan, Ohio, USA. This hollow was named for W.J. Conkle who left his name and the date 1797 carved into the sandstone on the west wall of the gorge. Conkles Hollow is a state nature preserve operated by ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-277.jpg
  • Canyon walls overhang at the end of the Gorge Trail in Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve, near Logan, Ohio, USA. This hollow was named for W.J. Conkle who left his name and the date 1797 carved into the sandstone on the west wall of the gorge. Conkles Hollow is a state nature preserve operated by ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-280.jpg
  • Canyon walls overhang at the end of the Gorge Trail in Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve, near Logan, Ohio, USA. This hollow was named for W.J. Conkle who left his name and the date 1797 carved into the sandstone on the west wall of the gorge. Conkles Hollow is a state nature preserve operated by ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-268-Pano.jpg
  • Sedimentary rock pattern in Whispering Cave along Hemlock Bridge Trail, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-239.jpg
  • Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-244.jpg
  • Hemlock Bridge Trail to Whispering Cave, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-237.jpg
  • A high footbridge crosses over a pylon footbridge along the Old Man's Cave Gorge trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-209.jpg
  • Black Hand Sandstone formations near Devil's Bathtub—Old Man's Cave Gorge trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-207.jpg
  • Old Man's Cave and Lower Falls loop trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-170-Pano-Edit.jpg
  • Upper Falls along Old Man's Cave Gorge trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-190.jpg
  • Old Man's Cave and Lower Falls loop trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-154-Pano.jpg
  • Lower Falls along Old Man's Cave loop trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-142.jpg
  • Old Man's Cave, footbridge, in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-126.jpg
  • The arched stone bridge at Lower Falls along Old Man's Cave loop trail in Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, Ohio, USA. The park contains numerous gorges, waterfalls, overhangs, and cliffs worn out of the picturesque Black Hand Sandstone, colored from orange to tan. The Black Hand Sandstone Member of the Cuyahoga Formation was deposited early in the Mississippian Period (359-318 million years ago). It underlies the Hocking Hills like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. Its geologic formation involved the ancient Appalachian Mountains to the east feeding rivers which deposited sand and gravel, which later become a coarse, sometimes conglomeratic quartz sandstone.
    23.06OHI-129.jpg
  • Rainbow Falls, on the Middle Fork San Joaquin River, in Devils Postpile National Monument, Ansel Adams Wilderness, Inyo National Forest, near Mammoth Lakes, California, USA. The water plunges from a lip of hard volcanic andesite down 101 feet to hit the lower layer of more-easily eroded volcanic rhyodacite, which has undercut, moving the falls 500 feet upstream from its original location. A loop day hike to Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls (6 miles with 780 feet gain) helped demystify Mammoth's complicated parking and Shuttle system. From a reserved campsite in Mammoth Lakes, we drove past Minaret Summit Entrance Station (before the 7am-7pm daily cutoff for private cars) to reach Devils Postpile's limited parking. Five days later, this would be our second backpacking trip's exit point via Reds Meadow Shuttle. By the way, Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls can be seen quicker from their separate parking lots connected by Reds Meadow Shuttle bus.
    2108CA1-660.jpg
  • A Green Moray Eel (Gymnothorax funebris) emerges from a pipe at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, in Newport, Oregon, USA. While it may look neon green, the skin of the otherwise brown eel actually secretes a yellow-tinted layer of protective, toxic mucus. Moray eels are the only fish (and the only vertebrates) with mobile pharyngeal jaws, an extraordinary hunting innovation where outer jaws firmly grasp the prey, then separate inner jaws within the throat shoot forward to bite the target and pull it in!
    2102OR2-770.jpg
  • Red bark of a Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) peals in a curled pattern to reveal a new yellow layer. Photographed along the lovely Goose Rock Perimeter Trail, in Deception Pass State Park, on Whidbey Island, Washington, USA.
    1505WHI-059_Arbutus-menziesii.jpg
  • Red bark of the Pacific Madrone or Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) peals in a pattern to reveal a new yellow layer, in Deception Pass State Park, on Whidbey Island, in Washington, USA. Photographed along the lovely Goose Rock Perimeter Trail.
    1505WHI-052_Arbutus-menziesii.jpg
  • The Castle is a rock formation of Wingate Sandstone, west of Fruita, in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. Wingate Sandstone rests upon the sloping, many-hued Triassic Chinle Formation, a former soil layer rich in clay derived from volcanic ash. The bottom of the slope is Moenkopi Formation, a dark brick-red mudstone and siltstone which surfaces most of the park west of the reef.
    1503SW-0447_The-Castle.jpg
  • The Castle is a rock formation of Wingate Sandstone above Capitol Reef National Park Visitor Center, between Torrey and Fruita, Utah, USA. Wingate Sandstone rests upon the sloping, many-hued Triassic Chinle Formation, a former soil layer rich in clay derived from volcanic ash. The bottom of the slope is Moenkopi Formation, a dark brick-red mudstone and siltstone which surfaces most of the park west of the reef.
    1503SW3-008_Capitol-Reef-NP.jpg
  • Vintgar Gorge (Blejski Vintgar / Soteska Vintgar) is a beautiful canyon of pools and rapids 1.6-km long (1 mile) in Slovenia near the settlement of Zgornje Gorje, four km northwest of Bled, in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia, Europe. Discovered in 1891, the intriguing gorge has been open for viewing from wooden observation walkways and bridges since 1893. Due to the ancient Bohinj Glacier damming the Radovna River into a lake, the river was diverted from eastward flow to its present northeast course, carving sheer canyon walls 50 to 100 meters (160 to 330 ft) deep through a soft layer of triassic limestone between the peaks of Borst and Hom, and emptying into the Upper Sava River Valley.
    13SLO-1449_Vintgar-Gorge-Slovenia.jpg
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