Tag Archives: national

Autumn Tree, Sculpted Sandstone

Autumn Tree, Sculpted Sandstone
“Autumn Tree, Sculpted Sandstone” — A cottonwood trree with autumn foliage grows next to a sculpted sandstone cliff.

A group of us ventured down into a narrow Utah canyon, lined with red rock walls and dotted with autumn trees. A creek flowed along its length, and the soft sound of its moving water was never far away. With the fall colors and the colorful rock faces there were photographs everywhere. Not surprisingly, our progress was slow… but very productive.

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Desert Gold Bloom

Desert Gold Bloom
“Desert Gold Bloom” — Desert gold wildflowers in bloom, Death Valley.

You often hear the expression that there is a “carpet of wildflowers” in a landscape. That description was apt in quite a few areas of Death Valley National Park when we visited in late February. To be clear, much of the landscape of this desert park sill looked like… desert. But in places there were wildflower blooms of impressive size.

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Desert Reflections, Lake Manly

Desert Reflections, Lake Manly
“Desert Reflections, Lake Manly” — Desert mountains and sky reflected in Lake Manly, Death Valley.

Looking at this aquatic scene it is hard to believe the normally here we would be looking at arid salt flats extending toward the horizon, not the reflective surface of a very large lake. But this is Death Valley, a place of astonishing variety, and sometimes that arid landscape is full of water.

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Stained Sandstone, Lichen

Stained Sandstone, Lichen
“Stained Sandstone, Lichen” — Lichen grows along a water stain on a Utah sandstone cliff face.

I recall the first time that I became truly aware of the variety of patterns and texture found in the Sandstone faces of The Southwest. I was photographing deep in a canyon in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with friends when I got the idea to keep my eyes open for petroglyphs, something I had not previously thought much about. Before long, I started imagining petroglyphs everywhere. Eventually, realizing that was impossible, I figured out that the rocks and erosion processes themselves produce remarkable patterns.

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