Dormant Plant, Fractured Rock. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A nearly dormant plant grows on a fractured boulder against a cliff wall in a Utah slot canyon.
To my way of thinking, slot canyons bring several primary associations. The narrow, twisting vertical walls are near the top of the list. The unusual surfaces of the wash floor are another: sand, mud, rocks. Above all (literally and figuratively) is the light entering far above and then bouncing back and forth among the canyon walls as it descends, picking up the colors of the rock and becoming softer and softer.
There are other associations, too, and although they might not be quite so immediately apparent, once you see them they are everywhere. Almost everything here is, of course, affected by water. The canyons were cut by it and the process continues. When the water periodically moves cataclysmically, rocks and boulders are redistributed downstream and mixed together with material from many different sources. As the water continues to eat into rock it undermines the higher structures, and gravity brings down rock from younger state. All the while the moving water grinds away and polishes the lower reaches of the canyon.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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