There are only a handful of places on Earth like Hot Creek's active geologic setting, where boiling, bubbling water rich in dissolved minerals emerges in turquoise pools rimmed by layers of travertine rock and shrouded in veils of steam. Hot Creek is a scenic wonderland containing dozens of natural hot springs bubbling up within the rocky walls of a river gorge and in the shadows of towering Eastern Sierra mountain peaks southeast of Mammoth Lakes, California. Within the shallow gorge, groundwater heated by subsurface bodies of molten rock (magma) reaches the surface and mixes with the cool waters of Hot Creek, creating a picturesque environment with otherworldly features. Below the hot springs, healthy populations of fish thrive off the abundant nutrition generated by the consistently warm waters of the creek. Delicate rock formations created by the precipitation of minerals rim the hot spring pools. Like most geothermal springs, the area is constantly changing and evolving. Once-active geysers and springs are now dormant or extinct, and new springs appear annually.
Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park located in south-central Utah. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres of desert landscape and is open all year. Capitol Reef National Park was initially designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. The park was named for whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations (similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings) that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. The local word reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.
Sunrise at Blue Valley near Factory Butte. Factory Butte Badlands is a little-known moon-like terrain northwest of Hanksville, Utah. You could fly to the moon and quite possibly not see something that looks so “Moon-like” as you will see here. Wayne County is known for its terrain that looks extraterrestrial.
