Southwest

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

Northern Arizona Sunset

Arizona, Desert Southwest, Weather

The sun doesn’t necessarily have to be in the shot for a good sunset image. Look away from the setting sun and you’ll see impressive color and light.

Light from a setting sun casts its colors on clouds from a passing rainstorm in Northern Arizona

Photography Workshops For America’s Desert Southwest

Desert Southwest, Instruction, Photo Workshops

I will be once again offering photography workshops for individuals and small groups. Beginners are more than welcome. We will get you to those hard to find places that you have seen me doing shoots. We offer hands-on training, image critique and software editing training. And since I have been an interpretive guide at national parks, you’ll also learn about the natural world we encounter out in the field.

Here’s a link to my website for more information – dawn2dawn Photography

Word Press members receive a 25% discount by applying discount code WP2019. This coupon also applies to photo prints. Contact me with the photography experience you want to have!

Some Really Billowy Storm Clouds

Desert Southwest, National Parks, Seasons, Weather, Zion

These clouds reach far into the sky and are forerunners of monsoonal storms to come.

Monsoonal moisture appears near Zion National Park, Utah

Saguaros Are Cool

Arizona, Desert Southwest, Flowers, National Parks, Photography

Saguaro National Park on either side of Tuscon, Arizona, is home to the Saguaro Cactus. Growing up to 40 feet tall, these plants are native to the Sonoran Desert. Other succulents and plants in the park include the Teddy Bear Cholla, Barrel Cactus, Hedgehog Cactus, Prickly Pear Cactus and the Ocotillo.

Kinda looks like a balloon you can twist into all kinds of unusual shapes.

The prickly spines on the cactus ward off animals looking for a happy meal!

Ocotillo

Buttes, Plateaus and Mesas- What’s the Difference?

Arizona, Desert Southwest, Utah

The images below shot last week along the Arizona/Utah border show buttes, plateaus and mesas, geologic land forms that permeate America’s Desert Southwest. In general terms, buttes are smaller than mesas and mesas are smaller than plateaus. Buttes were probably once mesas but shrunk in size due to erosion. Plateaus are bigger than both mesas and buttes. But specific sizes of each land form are not normally defined.

Mesas, Buttes and Plateaus make up the landscape near Fredonia, Arizona

Storm clouds hover over Gooseberry Mesa in Southern Utah. The smaller hills at the base can be categorized as buttes.

Desert Flora at Sunset

Desert Southwest, Flowers, Utah

While mountain biking this week near Gooseberry Mesa in Southern Utah, I captured some pics over a few evenings of the changing colors of the flora and the sunsets.

One Amazing Little Rainbow

Arizona, Desert Southwest, Grand Canyon, National Parks, Weather

Caught this rainbow dancing along the desert floor near Marble Canyon at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. It played with the monsoonal clouds passing through to provide some abstract images. A time lapse video of this rainbow and surrounding storms will follow soon. These images are available as prints or downloadable files for personal use at Dawn2dawnPhotography.com