Zion National Park, Utah
A small pine tree grows out of a sandy pocket near the base of the Checkerboard Mesa.
This chunk of Navajo sandstone has roughly horizontal striping from the original crossbedding of wind blown dunes and vertical cracking accented by freeze/thaw cycles. The result is reminiscent of a checkerboard (or chessboard).
Tags: Checkerboard Mesa USA United States Utah Zion Zion National Park landscape mesa national park outdoor park pine rock sandstone tree
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Checkerboard Mesa, Zion National Park, Utah
Plants are the ultimate opportunists. Given enough water, sunlight, and somewhere to anchor their roots, they will grow and thrive. This little tree is growing out of a crack in the sandstone making up Checkerboard Mesa.
Now as to the sandstone itself, it originated in early Jurassic times (roughly 190 million years ago) in a desert on the western edge of the Pangaea supercontinent, a desert much larger than the modern Sahara. The horizontal cross-bedding of the sandstone indicates that the sand was laid down by wind. The vertical cracking comes from burial compression and release from that compression through erosion. The resulting cross-hatch, or checkerboard, effect gives the mesa its name.
Tags: Checkerboard Mesa USA United States Utah Zion Zion National Park landscape mountain side national park outdoor sandstone tree
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The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah
The canyon wall ahead of us glows warmly in reflected sunlight, while the waters of the Virgin River rush along in the cool shadow of the canyon wall beside us.
Tags: autumn Zion river National Park canyon Zion Narrows Zion National Park landscape fall Virgin River Narrows Utah
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The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah
The trail up the Zion Narrows is in the Virgin River itself. Your path is often a zig-zag, whenever possible walking on narrow banks and in shoals to avoid the river's insistently pushing current. Here we are rounding a bend, the shadowed canyon walls giving way to walls glowing in the late morning reflected light. Yellow cottonwood trees are scattered along the high, narrow banks.
Tags: autumn Zion river National Park canyon Zion Narrows Zion National Park landscape fall Virgin River Narrows Utah
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The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah
This stretch of the Narrows has water seeping down the canyon wall into the river, giving a glistening appearance to the sandstone on our left.
Tags: Narrows Zion National Park Zion Narrows National Park landscape river Utah Virgin River canyon Zion
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