Southwest Parks and Monuments


In the spring, summer, and fall of 2020 I was honored to live in Colorado National Monument. The southwest has always called to me, and this was an incredible opportunity to explore the delicate sandstone canyons, cliffs, mesas, and buttes of the surrounding area.


This is a selection of photographs from travels around Colorado National Monument, Zion National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Bryce National Park, and Fisher Towers in 2020, as well as a few photos from Zion in 2017.

 

A moody grey sunset looking down at the tops of tall sandstone formations on the edge of a large canyon in Colorado National Monument.
Close up of a Bighorn Sheep with curved bone colored horns, leaning down to browse on foliage. Taken in Colorado National Monument.
Rolling scrubby bright red hills with whiter sandstone hills and cliffs behind them on a nice summer day in Dinosaur National Monument.
A view looking upwards at one of the tallest spires of the Fisher Towers area, with the wall of a sandstone cliff dividing the frame.
The untamed Yampa river cuts through a big sandstone valley seem from along a cliffside trail in Dinosaur National Monument.
A large sandstone arch in Colorado National Monument, seen from below on a mostly clear summer day.
A curved almost egg-like formation of tilted sandstone that is the edge of a huge cliff curves across the frame in front of sky and clouds.
An intricately cracked and eroded sandstone canyon wall sweeps across the photo with scrubby trees below in Colorado National Monument.
A valley near Colorado National Monument with white bedrock in the foreground and red sandstone curving canyon walls on the other side.
A view from inside a slot canyon in Canyonlands National Park, with a large boulder near where the sandstone opens up.
A collared lizard stands on a rock with dry grass in the background in Colorado National Monument. The lizard is green with an orange face.
A telephoto view of a rugged red unvegetated canyons and ridges in Canyonlands National park, with mountains in the far distance.
Sandstone cliffs with heavy erosion in the distance and lumpy sandstone bedrock next to red soil with scrub in the Fisher Towers area.
A high up view of a desolate part of Canyonlands National Park with brown and red canyons and sandstone rock in the lower right foreground.
Two fallen dead trees lie on the edge of a cliff beyond which can be seen a blue sky with large white cumulous clouds.
Sunset with sandstone cliffs somewhere outside Colorado National Monument.
Sunlight on warm sandstone streaked with water erosion and desert varnish, with the silhouettes of plants and slopes on either side.
A very intricate jumbled landscape of sandstone and trees in Canyonlands National Park.
Colorado National Monument on a winter day with snow decorating sandstone cliffs in front of a very long view to the valley beyond the park.
Sandstone cliffs with different rock units eroded differently alongside a highway in the southwest of the US on a clear day.
The iconic 'Mitten' buttes of Monument Valley; the foreground butte is in deep shadow while the distant butte is illuminated by sun.
Sunset light plays across the tips of sandstone bounders and huge fins in the background in Arches National Park.
A deep sandstone canyon cuts into Colorado National Monument, with green scrub and trees topping a plateau in the distance.
Bright reddish beige sandstone hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park framed by standing and fallen dead trees that are silver grey.
A wide angle view from inside a verdant part of the main canyon of Zion National Park with the Virgin river winding through.
Intricately cross-bedded sandstone bedrock on the east side of Zion National Park sitting on the edge of huge cliffs, on a bright clear day.
A hill in Bryce Canyon that has a large eroded slope and many sandstone hoodoo rock formations on one side, and conifer trees on the other.
Inside a canyon between sandstone fins in Arches National Park, looking up at the walls of a fin with a fallen curved dead tree in front.
A wide angle view looking down into the main canyon of Zion National Park, with towering sandstone cliffs on either side and brush nearby.
Panoramic view of Arches National Park on a clear day with a clouds in the distance, countless sandstone fins and canyons arrayed below.
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