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SmoothSeas

SmoothSeas

Senior Member
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is located in Arizona, immediately south of the Utah state line.

The Vermilion Cliffs are steep eroded escarpments consisting primarily of sandstone, siltstone, limestone, and shale which rise as much as 3,000 feet (910 m) above their bases. These sedimentary rocks have been deeply eroded for millions of years, exposing hundreds of layers of richly colored rock strata. Tables, buttes, and large tablelands are interspersed with steep canyons, where some small streams provide enough moisture to support a sampling of wildlife.


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Peek-a-Boo Gulch, Utah
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light beam shines through a slot canyon
Shutterstock/Megan Betteridge
Drive nine miles north of Kanab, along Utah's rugged Hole-in-the-Rock Road, and you'll eventually happen upon the entrance to Peek-a-Boo Gulch. The narrow slot canyon—which is often referred to as "Antelope Canyon without the crowds"—calls for a moderate 0.7-mile round-trip hike. But don't get scared—once you're inside, hand and foot cut-outs help you navigate the canyon's awe-inspiring sandstone walls.
 
smoothseas, at first I thought your gorgeous photo was related to a recent article I clipped out of our local paper! Turns out the article I clipped was instead highlighting a state park, slightly closer to LVegas than the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, but with similar variegated sandstone cliffs.

The article is free, and is a fun read with a couple of other good nature photos (linked below). Here is the writer's photo of the Valley of Fire State Park, 43 miles east of Las Vegas, and just north of Lake Mead. Both his and your photos are so spectacular!
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SFGATE free link:
Valley of Fire State Park in southern Nevada
 
Back in 2010 Spouse and I took a Road Scholar (formerly Elderhostel) trip that guided us through Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque, NM. Even though neither of us had ever had an interest in SW Indian art, we were fascinated by the many small museums in Santa Fe and Taos. Each one has an area, tribe, or time period they specialize in, so the variety is amazing.

Both of enjoyed the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos the most. It's true what they say about the exquisite light there; it is perfect for artists. I took this photo March 2010 just before we entered the museum, and it remains my favorite from that particular trip:

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Like Lewkat, I LOVE photos of waterfalls. But this was a very unexpected piece of Nature - built by people, located in the heart of Seattle, WA. In a bland commercial district of offices, the REI Co-op Headquarters created a mini-nature preserve, with a lovely two-story waterfall angling down past their front entrance. Chunks of granite and mature plantings give it that PNW nature feeling.
 
These next photos are from McKerricher State Park in Mendocino, CA, 155 miles north of San Francisco. Although not well-known, it has some of the richest coastline variety of all CA and federal parks. There are 9 miles of coastline, including beaches, dunes, tidepools, wetlands, forest, and even a freshwater lake:
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There are several varieties of iceplant, some of which are invasive. It is a South African succulent (they have a similar climate to Northern CA) and it was heavily planted as an erosion control landscaping. It is evergreen, but turns brilliant colors in cold snaps, and their annual flowering is a highlight for swaths of intensely colored blooms across dunes and hillsides. Just above the Pacific, you can see the fog bank that so often lurks off our coastline in NorCA.


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Pacific Ocean - tide coming in on the beach.

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The tide carves out natural tunnels in the sand dunes. Some kids were having a great time running through them!


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Another tunnel - I loved the striations along the arch.
 
I was heavily into gardening for a long while, and did a lot of flower photography. Monterey/Carmel, CA is just over 100 miles south of SF. It is a real Paradise for home and commercial gardeners. The weather warms as you travel southwards, but the coastal breezes keep it temperate year-round. I was startled to see this protea shrub, healthy and blooming like crazy, outdoors.

We can't grow them in the SF Bay Area without some protection as we do get a few "freeze days" during the year, plus a little too much fog for their liking. They like heat, full sun, good drainage and lots of air circulation, so their growing range in coastal CA ranges from San Diego to Santa Cruz. A good NorCA gardener could probably grow them in the areas called the "near inland" - not quite Central CA but far enough away from the coast that fog seldom intrudes. But they're definitely not suitable for my garden, alas!

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This blue glacier photo appeared in the WSJournal in 2015, taken by Alex Cornell in Antarctica. Because it isn't covered with ice and snow, it must have only recently 'flipped over'. Cornell saw it from the expedition's boat, and took a smaller boat over to capture this shot. He said in a few days, a week at most, ice and snow would cover it so that it will look the same as all the other icebergs.
 

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