One of the most recognized landmarks in Zion National Park, Court of the Patriarchs reach into the Utah sky. These three photogenic peaks bear the biblical names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Towering above Birch Creek Canyon almost 2000 feet, the Court of the Patriarchs represents nearly a full layer of Navajo Sandstone. This exposed sandstone is one of nine Zion rock layers that together span 150 million years of sediment deposits. The Patriarch cliffs represent one of the thickest layers of sediment, making up some of the tallest cliffs in the world. Occasional flash floods in the Virgin River increase water volume by 100 times and bring down tons of loose rock and sand, scouring out new side canyons and re-channeling the river. Here in Zion Canyon this magnificent scenery is always experiencing change, but its subtleties are seldom recognized in such an immense canyon.
These otherworldly "towers," located in California's Mono Lake, may look like eerie art installations, but they occur naturally and are made of limestone. Mono Lake is a shallow salt water lake located in the high desert on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California in the United States. The lake has no outlet to the ocean causing high levels of salts to accumulate in the waters. These rock towers form when underwater springs rich in calcium mix with the waters of the lake, which are rich in carbonates. The resulting reaction forms limestone. Over time the buildup of limestone formed towers, and when the water level of the lake dropped the towers became exposed.
Teddy Bear Cholla (pronounced like "choya") are profuse along the base of the Kofa Mountains. These fuzzy-looking cacti have tiny barbed spines that stick to anything they touch like velcro, except much bloodier to remove if you're unfortunate enough to get one stuck on you. The spiny arms fall off the plant at the slightest touch, and wherever they fall to the ground they actually start growing a new plant! While the spines catch anything that touches them, they also do a great job of catching light too! Backlit cholla glow radiantly and are thus a favorite subject for photographers in the Sonoran desert. The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located in Arizona in the southwestern United States, northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect desert bighorn sheep, encompasses over 665,400 acres of the Yuma Desert region of the Sonoran Desert.
