Tag Archives: sandstone

Patterns in Rock

Patterns in Rock
Complex patterns in rocks along the California coast.

Patterns in Rock. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Complex patterns in rocks along the California coast.

If you are hoping for a scientific explanation of what you are seeing in this photograph, I’m not qualified to provide it. I’ve visited this little area of small geographic wonders at Point Lobos for decades, and much of it remains a mystery to me. I know bits and pieces of information, but far from the whole story.

I find something new every time I visit this spot, even after all of these years. This little vignette impresses me with its variety of features. The underlying rock seems to be some kind of sandstone, in vertically oriented layers that must have been uplifted and distorted at some point. Other rocks are embedded in it, and in this spot there is this odd bit of angular patterns.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Old Cottonwood and Red Rock Cliffs

Old Cottonwood and Red Rock Cliffs
An old cottonwood tree, changing to fall colors, stands in front ot a red rock cliff face, Zion National Park.

Old Cottonwood and Red Rock Cliffs. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An old cottonwood tree, changing to fall colors, stands in front ot a red rock cliff face, Zion National Park.

There’s a very good chance that I’ve already said this too many times, but the color palette of the Utah red rock country is simply remarkable. The rocks themselves are astonishingly diverse, ranging from the reddish tones to whites, grays and blacks, and occasionally more exotic colors. The trees and plants, especially as the autumn color change begins, cover a range from grays through greens to yellow, orange, red, and brown. And all of this varies from the bluish tones of early morning and evening through the golden hour saturation and the midday intensity of light. I’ve said it before and I’ll likely repeat myself in the future, but to a Sierra Nevada photographer this can be almost overwhelming.

Early on our second morning in Zion National Park we took a drive that entered the park near Springdale just before dawn. We stopped several times as we began the ascent on the Mt. Carmel highway, first to photograph the intense dawn light and then, a bit later, to photograph this gnarly tree against the backdrop of a shaded canyon wall.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Young Trees, Zion Canyon

Young Trees, Zion Canyon
Slender young trees growing at the base of the sandstone cliffs in Zion Canyon.

Young Trees, Zion Canyon. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Slender young trees growing at the base of the sandstone cliffs in Zion Canyon.

The biggest and oldest cottonwood trees are some of the most impressive specimens in these canyons. They often tower high above their surroundings, and for this reason can be photographed against cliff faces or sky without interference from other plants. They fill sections of canyon bottoms throughout the Southwest and, for that matter, they are found in an amazing range of places in the west, from near desert locations to the flatlands of California’s Central Valley. However, their dominance of the plantscape can sometimes distract from other worthy subjects that do not shout their presence quite so loudly.

These young trees in Zion Canyon have a kind of grace and fragility that contrasts with the solid mass of those bigger cottonwoods. The branches of these trees are slender and they move in the breeze. (Which, by the way, adds a particular challenge to photographing them in very low light.) The soft canyon light reflecting down from far above almost makes them luminous.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Cliff Edge in Sunlight

Cliff Edge in Sunlight
Sun shines on the sharp edge of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.

Cliff Edge in Sunlight. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

DescrSun shines on the sharp edge of a sandstone cliff, Zion National Park.iption

Many years ago I was on a two-week backpacking trip through a long section of the Southern Sierra Nevada, covering some of the highest portions of the range on foot. The hike took me across a series of very high passes that were close to 12,000′ hight. In other words, I spent a lot of time in some very rugged and alpine places. I distinctly recall pausing on one of the higher passes to look around and realizing that the entire visible landscape consisted of rock and snow, with not a bit of forest visible to me. That vision of such a raw landscape stuck with me, and I’m always on the look out for such things.

While Zion Canyon is certainly not a place without forests and trees and rivers and lots of other comfortable things, it is possible to find a few ways of viewing this country that reinforce how much of its landscape is built on rock, in this case layers of sedimentary rock laid down, transformed, twisted and tilted over the millennia. This photograph catches the sun-lit edge of a closer buttress (yes, with a few plants!) juxtaposed with another more distant wall in shadow.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.