What sounds like the horrors of a bad visit to the dentist and a crazy collection of buildings in some ancient man-made city is actually a crazy collection of natural monuments in an ancient geological formation. This is Zion National Park of Utah in all of its glory. Layers of sandstone have been slowly carved away by the silt heavy Virgin River in the valley floor, and its tributaries such as Oak Creek and Pine Creek. It is an amazing landscape of sheer cliffs, colorful and towering such as seen in this beautiful image from the valley floor, and covered with intricate patterns such as in this stunning image from the uplands beyond the Great Arch, both of which are available for sale in our store. However, perhaps one of the best viewpoints in the entire park and that which is shown in the above photo is the Pine Creek Canyon Overlook, located on the upper altitude land directly above the Great Arch. Some of the most famous named features of the park can be seen in this image, as it covers the entire span of The Towers of The Virgin plus so much more. Beyond the foreground sandstone platform, starting on the far left is the lower reaches of Bridge Mountain, whose peak is out of the view to the left. Behind this closer formation is a series of more distant formations, the leftmost of which is The West Temple, seen as the flat-topped red mesa left of center. It is the highest feature in the entire area, at an altitude of 7810 feet and towering a whopping 3800 feet above the valley floor. To the immediate right of it, in dazzling white, is The Sundial. Standing 3600 feet above the valley floor, its shadow was long used as a sundial to synchronize clocks by the residents of Grafton, a ghost town since 1944 found just south of Zion National Park. To the immediate right of The Sundial is a narrow, jagged peak, also in white, called The Witch Head. Standing 3300 feet above the valley floor, it is named for its resemblance to a pointy witches hat with a craggy face underneath. The smaller jagged white peak to the right of The Witch Head is known as Broken Tooth, named for its similarities to a broken molar. To the immediate right of Broken Tooth is yet a third jagged white peak, this one a bit more covered with dark vegetation, reminiscent of a cavitated tooth, for which it has been named Rotten Tooth. To the immediate right of Rotten Tooth, near the center of the photo, is the famous formation known as The Altar of Sacrifice. It is a prominent flat-topped mesa in contrast to its nearest neighbors The Witch Head, Broken Tooth, and Rotten Tooth. Standing at 3500 feet above the valley floor, it is one of the more prominent features from the valley floor, especially when viewed from the south. It is also colored in white, like its neighbors, but has two very dark red streaks dripping down its sides, evoking a gruesome image of blood pouring off of a table after a sacrifice, though in actuality created by dissolved iron oxides being deposited by runoff water. Though each of these named features look small from this distant viewpoint, to give a sense of the awesome scale here, the distance across The Sundial, The Witch Head, Broken Tooth, and Rotten Tooth is one whole mile! In front of The Altar of Sacrifice is shaded land sloping upward, which emerges from the cloud shade before topping out in a conical peak, a feature named Bee Hive for its resemblance to an old wicker hive. While from this perspective it appears that Bee Hive is taller than The Altar of Sacrifice, it is an illusion created by it being much closer; in reality The Altar of Sacrifice is actually a full 600 feet higher! Directly to the right of Bee Hive, behind the small curved depression can just be made out the top of Meridian Tower, while to the right of this depression the land rises up to the flat mesa that forms part of The Sentinel. Directly below Bee Hive is a sheer rock face covered by hundreds of dark vertical streaks, just to the right of the deep cloud shadow. This is the famous Streaked Wall. Finally, at the far right of the image, and much closer, rises the lower portions of The East Temple. Collectively these are some of the most well known and visible formations in Zion National Park. The Wild Images Team purposely captured shadows in this photo to give a sense of depth to the formations, and it further draws the focus on The Sundial, being the brightest feature towering above its u shaped opening, which itself stands above two shadows themselves forming parallel u shapes in the valley, broken up by the u shape created by Bridge Mountain, the sandstone platform, and the rise up to Streaked Wall. All of this is beyond the foreground u shaped sandstone platform. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos in Utah including the competition between cliff colors and clouds in Zion National Park, the intricate designs of the high altitude patterned wall in Zion National Park, distant rain curtains over the colorful cliffs of Bryce Canyon National Park, cloud shadows defining the colorful pinnacles of Bryce Canyon National Park, the scenic view as the full moon rises over Red Canyon, the Goblin Valley State Park thunderstorm and lightning strike over goblins, the impenetrable colorful rim wall of Goblin Valley State Park, the gravity defying balanced rock with snow in Arches National Park, the moment in Arches National Park when a winter storm clears over pinnacles and the La Sal Mountains, the very bright but fleeting rainbow beyond The Hand in Arches National Park, the instance In Arches National Park when lightning strikes near the Three Gossips, the green slopes of Sandy Mountain guarded by red lichen rock sentinels, the wild clouds over the elevated plains of the Grand Staircase-Escalante, and finally in Midway where the five flags of the military fly over Memorial Hill, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts documenting our time in Utah include the road towards the extremely remote Valley of the Gods, an expansive view of the major formations of Zion National Park, the road winding through Fremont cottonwoods in Zion National Park, the road through intricately carved highlands in Zion National Park, the road through red and white rock cliffs in Zion National Park, The Wild Images Team vehicle on a dirt road in Red Canyon, the high altitude scene where a thistle soaks up the brief summer season sunshine, the moment a snake slithers over water plants in Cascade Springs, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at the entrance to Cascade Springs, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome standing proudly in Goblin Valley, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at The Brick Oven Restaurant, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at an overlook of Bryce Canyon National Park, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome in front of the rock pinnacles of Bryce Canyon National Park, The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome at the entrance of Zion National Park, and finally The Wild Images Team Travel Gnome in front of the cliffs of Zion National Park.
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