Valley of the Gods

Magnificent sandstone scenery in the less-traveled backcountry area between Bluff and Mexican Hat

Valley of the Gods

Often considered a smaller version of the nearby Monument Valley, the Valley of the Gods has a charm entirely of its own

The hand

Extraordinary formations in the Valley of the Gods

Muley Point

Last light over the San Juan goosenecks and Monument Valley seen from the Muley Point Overlook

Last light

Monument Valley capturing the last light.

Owachomo Bridge

The elegant Owachomo is only 3 meters thick but strectches some 55 meters at Natural Bridges National Monument

Kachina Bridge

That these natural bridges are dynamic structures that won't be there forever was proven as recently as 1992 at Kachina Bridge, when a large chunk of sandstone came down, enlarging the opening considerably. Kachina Bridge spans a width of 62 meters

Pygmy forest

Pinyon pine and Utah juniper, as here in the Natural Bridges National Monument, are often called pygmy trees for their smaller size. While only 6 to 9 meters tall these perfectly adapted trees can be 300 to 600 years old

Lizard

A common sight in the Utah desert and canyonlands, the sagebrush lizard

Bluff

An old Buick Eight in Bluff

Abandoned Navajo shop

Primitive shops like this one can be found aplenty along the roads in Navajo Land

The San Juan Goosenecks

A textbook example of incised meanders are offered here by the San Juan River near Mexican Hat, Utah. On this particular spot, the San Juan, a tributary of the Colorado River, flows a distance of over six miles while advancing barely one and half miles. The photogenic quality of the San Juan Goosenecks wasn't lost to filmmaker John Ford who featured them in a famous scene in his Fort Apache.