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| Bryce Canyon and Arches | ||
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Some of this series of photos was taken in one of my favorite places: Bryce Canyon, a small national park in southwestern Utah. I was lucky enough to go hiking here, and you can bet I was taking pictures the whole time. Bryce Canyon is beautiful for many reasons – including dazzling panoramic views, unique geological formations, and a rich natural palette of brilliant colors. And since the air is so clear up there, the visibility is amazing. You can frequently see anywhere from ninety to two hundred miles away.
Bryce Canyon is not technically a canyon, but a series of huge natural amphitheaters, shaped like horseshoes. It was established as a national park in 1928, mainly due to the beauty and individuality of its anomalous rock formations.
The unique geological features that appear in my pictures and make Bryce Canyon famous are also the result of natural erosion processes. Rainwater and ice slowly erode weaker parts of the rock, which is comprised of limestone, sandstone, and mudstone, and creates unique natural formations. These formations include windows, arches, bridges, and pinnacles. The most well known formations are the spires, called "hoodoos". Tall, narrow, and haunting, these spires are formed from soft, sedimentary rock. Some hoodoos are capped with a section of harder rock, which dissolves more slowly, protecting the formation. Their textured surfaces exhibit a series of ridges, a varying thickness that evokes the shape of a totem pole. Hoodoos vary widely in height, too. Some are as short as the average person, while some tower as high as a ten-story building.
The natural formations in Bryce Canyon are also impressive for their brilliant colors. Naturally colorful, the limestone and sandstone vary widely in hue, offering a wide array of glowing peaches, pinks, oranges, and creams. Staged against the red sunsets and bright blue sky, obviously this is an exciting invitation for any photographer! The contrasting color palette and the intriguing natural compositions offer lots of opportunities for creating stunning pictures. As you can see from my Bryce Canyon photos, I made it a goal to play up the contrast between red rock and blue sky, and the symmetry of the natural skyline.
Another geological formation displayed in some of the Bryce Canyon pictures is the arch. Arches are natural holes that are eroded in thin walls of rock, carved out by wind blown sand and a process called frost wedging. Basically, melting snow trickles into miniature cracks in the rock, then freezes overnight, expanding and pushing apart the cracks, weakening the structure of the rock. Overtime, this process creates the large holes seen here, known as arches, bridges, or windows. (The distinction between an arch and a Bridge is that an arch is formed by wind, whereas a bridge is formed by water.) Arches are the geological precursor to hoodoos, and they'll slowly be eroded into the skinny spires. But in the meantime, they offer another example of stunning natural sculpture, and a great photo opportunity.