Another visit to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Trump plans to reduce this monument in size by 90%.
Why?
Some More Amazing Clay Beds
Tag: erosion
Still Images From Bentonite Hills
Only Going Backwards
It seems that way when you visit the incomparable Bentonite Hills in Southern Utah. Bentonite is a type of clay created by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. I’m sure the clay beds have changed in appearance over the years through erosion but these layers give you some insight into how they may have originally looked and formed.
Watch at HiDef at Full Screen. Music is Feels Like We Only Go Backwards by Tame Impala.
Flyover Video Of Factory Buttes.
You wouldn’t want to get lost in this maze of badlands. Now we know why they call them badlands.
EWatch in HiDef at Full Screen. Music is Jai Dormi Sous L’eau by the French Band AIR.
Back To The Past
A favorite place of mine to visit and shoot is Factory Butte in Southern Utah. The years of weathering and erosion have created a masterpiece that is best viewed from above. The yellow mineral deposits in the gray Mancos Shale is Jarosite. This is a yellow-colored iron sulfate mineral that often forms in arid, acidic environments, such as the weathering of iron-rich shale. Sulfur and gypsum are also present.
Factory Butte’s formation is the result of a geological process spanning nearly 100 million years, divided into two distinct phases: the deposition of ancient sediments and the subsequent erosional sculpting of the landscape. This area was under a sea of water which deposited the sediments. The sharp ridges and “lunar” badlands at the base are the result of centuries of relentless erosion by rainwater and wind that continue to shape the formation today. I would not want to get lost in that maze.
Video to follow soon. These images were captured via drone.
Coyote Buttes- A Whimsical Product Of The Forces Of Nature.
Coyote Buttes, on the Arizona/Utah border, is a landscape that defies description. Freud would have trouble developing a diagnosis for this patient.
One look at it will put a smile on your face along with a frown. It’s situated at The Vermillion Cliffs National Monument and is well protected. At North Coyote Buttes, a trip to The Wave is only accessible for 20 daily fortunates who were victorious in the dreaded lottery put on by The Bureau of Land Management.
It’s a riot of abstractness, details, hues, textures, patterns and dizzying sandstone shapes. The Navajo Sandstone calcified dunes evolved into its current look due to erosion from winds and rains.
This is a repost from 2014..
At South Coyote Buttes, the unusual is the usual at this landscape. Grotesque shapes of rock cast by millions of years of weathering have produced a carnival of oddities that Barnum & Bailey would be proud of. I half expected a woman with a beard to come walking around the corner.
It seems as if someone put one of those curvy carnival mirrors out there to give Coyote Buttes it’s distorted look. But it is real. I think.
It’s highly believable that it took millions of years for the gods to create Coyote Buttes.
You just don’t put this together in a week.
Michael Andrew Just
Dawn2Dawn Photography
Utah’s Valley Of The Gods
I didn’t feel the presence of any Gods but I definitely witnessed the work of Gods millions of years ago. Valley Of The Gods is Monument Valley’s handsome understudy but just as magnificent. The landscape is raw and unadulterated and the BLM has wisely and purposely left the road rough and uneven, making the drive through it hard earned. Music is the Pyramid Song by Radiohead. Watch in HiDef at Full Screen. Still Images to follow.
Images From Utah’s Amazing Factory Butte Badlands
Shot from above, this landscape provides a series of images that defy description. From ground level, these badlands look rather pedestrian. Enjoy. These images can be purchased as prints or wall art at. Dawn2Dawn Photography
Over Utah’s Desert Landscape
An aerial video at the badlands of Factory Butte just east of Capitol Reef National Park. Watch in HiDef at Full Screen. Music is Parade by Rone.
The Off The Beaten Path Cathedral Gorge State Park
Cathedral Gorge State Park is in Nevada but close to the Utah border. It’s in a remote location and gets little visitation but it is grand nonetheless. These Bentonite spires were formed through erosion over millions of years and seems prehistoric. I kept waiting for a Neanderthal to appear.
