"Star Gaze" Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizon A masterpiece of a lonely rock waiting for the stars to come out at sunset

"Star Gaze" By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Star Gazer” The Vermillion Cliffs are one of my favorite places in the world. It is a land of wonders and geological oddities coupled with the high Colorado plateaus. With a stunning clarity of air and light, this area offers absolutely wondrous sunsets, sunrises, and landscape possibilities. Rare Spring storms brought clouds to the Paria Plateau giving the sunset a sense of magic and drama. I had pre-visualized this image and when I had seen the storms clearing I drove three and a half hours straight to the plateau, through the treacherous sand, just to get to this area. After three days of camping in the remote wilderness with the glory of nature open to me, I was able to create this masterpiece of a lonely rock waiting for the stars to come out at sunset. Location: The Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"First Light Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah "By Robert Park Thor’sHammer, The Hunter

"First Light Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah "By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Thor’s Hammer, The Hunter, Thirty to forty million years ago this rock was “born” in an ancient lake that covered much of Western Utah. The primary weathering force at Bryce Canyon is frost wedging which creates mazes of abstract cities and figures. I planned my arrival at Bryce to place the rising sun behind The Hammer so the silhouette would block the sun bringing the glowing light bounced off the canyon walls. © Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com"

"Truckin" Joshua Tree National Park A Dead Head fan was out for amorning jog. By Robert Park

"Truckin" Joshua Tree National Park By RobertPark http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
"Truckin" Grateful Dead Head Cholla, Joshua Tree NP I was photographing sunrise backlit cholla in Joshua Tree this winter and while I was entranced by the glowing backlighting effect I was unaware that this Dead Head fan was out for a morning jog. He looked at me saying "Dude That's An Awesome Camera" and ran off, but not before I got an image off. © RobertPark www.robert-park.com

The Subway is a mysterious keyhole slot in the west fork of the NorthCreek in Zion National Park.

"Subway" Zion National Park, UT By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

The Subway is a mysterious keyhole slot in the west fork of the North Creek in Zion National Park.
It is a very strenuous and slippery nine mile round trip that few people ever get to see.
The pools get their color from the algae that thrive in the cold water that never sees sunlight
For most of the year.
Location The Subway, Zion National Park, UT. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com

"Toroweap Point"Grand Canyon National Park By Robert Parkhttp://www.robert-park.com

"Toroweap Point"Grand Canyon National Park By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Toroweap Point" Toroweap Point offers the most magnificent view in the entire Grand Canyon. The view is dramatic because the cliff is nearly vertical, dropping almost straight down some 3,000 feet to the Colorado River. The viewpoint offers a dramatic view of the middle part of the Grand Canyon National Park. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"Horseshoe Bend" By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

"Horseshoe Bend" By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Horseshoe Bend’” I have photographed this area numerous times, yet the sense of drama, space, and magic had eluded me for many years due to the deep canyon and harsh light of the desert. I had envisioned a twilight image with streams of light cascading across the sky, giving a soft gentle glow to the deep gorge that lay ahead of me. I spent four nights in Page, Arizona waiting on the edge of a storm until the conditions were correct. On the third day a light snowfall precluded a successful image, however on the last day the storm began to clear. Beautiful threads of light and clouds streamed across the sky, while the foreground basked in the radiant glow. It was then that I created Horseshoe Bend. Located at Page, Arizona. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"PT Sublime" By Grand Canyon, National Park By Robert Parkhttp://www.robert-park.com

"PT Sublime" By Grand Canyon, National Park By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
PT Sublime Point Sublime is a seldom visited spectacle on the North Rim. It is a treacherous 17 mile high clearance Jeep trail that rewards you at the end of the road with Point Sublime, an isolated peninsula utterly surrounded by the canyo n and monuments. I travel there in late August to capture monsoons in the canyons. Choosing a vantage point that gave the sensation of depth and space, I waited as the sun set and the sky and canyon lit up. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this remote point got it’s name from as It was simply a sublime experience. Location: Point Sublime, Grand Canyon, NP © RobertPark www.robert-park.com/

;Spider Rock; Canyon De Chelly ,Arizona National Park By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

"SpiderRock" Canyon De Chelly ,Arizona National Park By Robert Park http:www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
“SpiderRock ‘”…… Spider Rock stands with awesome dignity and beauty over 800 feet high. Located at Canyon De Chelly National Monument ,Arizona. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"Mystic Portal" ByRobert Park http://www.robert-park.com

"Mystic Portal" ByRobert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Mystic Portal Location Chaco Culture, New Mexico The center of an ancient worldChaco Canyon was an important Anasazi (ancient Native American) cultural center from about 900 through 1130 AD. It is a place that is to be sensed as much as seen. Of all the ancient, sacred sites I visited in the Southwest, this is the one that speaks to me like no other. No language doesn't exist that can adequately describe the experience you must experience your self. © RobertPark www.robert-park.com/

"Slurpee" Grand Tetons National Park Slurpee Moose wading in a pond at Grand Tetons National Park By Robert Park

"Slurpee" Grand Tetons National Park By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
"Slurpee" Grand Tetons National Park By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

Slurpee Moose wading in a pond at Grand Tetons National Park

"Night Crawler" Death Valley National Park,California By Robert Parkhttp://www.robert-park.com

"Night Crawler" Death Valley National Park,California By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
"Night Crawler" Death Valley National Park,California By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

The playa is in the small Racetrack Valley endorheic basin between the Cottonwood Mountains on the east and Nelson Range to the west. During periods of heavy rain, water washes down from the mountains onto the playa, forming a shallow, short-lived endorheic lake. Under the hot desert sun the thin veneer of water quickly evaporates leaving behind a surface layer of soft slick mud. As the mud dries it shrinks and cracks into a mosaic pattern of interlocking polygons. The shape of the shallow hydrocarbon lake Ontario Lacus on Saturn’s moon Titan has been compared to that of Racetrack Playa. The Racetrack is a unique attraction of Death Valley National Park that not many park visitors get to see. It’s a dry lakebed in a very remote and beautiful area. On the north end of the lakebed is a rock formation known as the grandstands. Rocks from the grandstands and other nearby formations break off and fall onto the lake. There, they perform feats that make this remote playa world-famous. The evidence that they move is the trails they leave behind them as they scoot around the lake. You ’ll find a rock sitting innocently anywhere on the playa — from next to the grandstand to the far southern edge — and behind it will be a trail, from the rock sliding across the fine clay surface of the lakebed. They move! But after all these years, a hundred or more since this phenomenon was brought to the attention of naturalists studying Death Valley, no one has ever seen them move. These rocks aren’t boulders; most are perhaps a foot or so tall, but can still weigh a lot and are not easy to lift.Location The Racetrack Death Valley National Park, California
© Robert Park
www.robert-park.com/

"Spider Rock"By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

"Spider Rock"By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Canyon De Chelly, Arizona

View More Photos At The Natural Wonders Gallery

Rose Bud is an abstract impression of the delicate flower buds of a rose found in Lower Antelope Canyon.

"Rosebud" , a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
This incredible canyon has been created over many thousands of years by the relentless forces of water and wind, slowly carving and sculpting the sandstone into forms, textures, and shapes which we observe today.
The views in Antelope Canyon change constantly as the sun moves across the sky, filtering lights softly across the stone walls. These ever-moving sun angles bounce light back and forth across the narrow canyon's walls, creating a dazzling display of color, light, and shadow that reveals forms and figures throughout the day.
Rose Bud is an abstract impression of the delicate flower buds of a rose found in Lower Antelope Canyon.

"Emerald Garden" - A Dreamy Image at Punchbowl Falls in The Columbia Gorge, OR

"Emerald Garden", a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Emerald Garden is a dreamy image of Punchbowl Falls. The falls "are located in a very remote and deep gorge that is filled with snow melt waters coming from Mount Hood in the Cascade Range. This image was captured in early summer using an exposure lasting nearly four minutes, which created an ethereal smooth glow to the water that trickled away from the falls. Located at Punchbowl Falls Oregon© Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"Emergence" sunrise sky with mesas and buttes rising on the horizon Antelope Canyon, Arizona

"Emergence" By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
 "Emergence"
The canyon’s shadowy walls combine with beams of sunlight that penetrate the canyon and often create scenes of unbelievable and surreal natural beauty. As the day goes on, changing light angles create a kaleidoscope of patterns,abstract scenes and colors. This area of Antelope reminds me of a sunrise sky with mesas and buttes rising on the horizon with the suns rays.Located at Navajo Nation Antelope Canyon, Arizona. © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"Dawn of Time" Death Valley National Park, California."By Robert Park

"Dawn of Time" Death Valley National Park, California."By Robert Park, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Dawn of Time was captured on the 1st of January 2010 as a winter storm cleared leaving behind trace amounts of water in the Bad Water Basin of Death Valley. It was taken on one of my ritualistic treks to Death Valley for New Years. Dawn of Time was conceived several years prior to its actual creation; however, I had to wait for the right conditions in order to capture it. On my New Years 2010 trip to Death Valley, I had waited several days for a storm to clear that allowed the shallow lake you see in the image to form. I needed to have a smooth wind-free morning, so the lake would be like glass and give the reflection that I had pre-visualized. On the last day of my trip the storms cleared and the sunrise was spectacular with pink ribbons running across the sky, casting beautiful pink and magenta hues on the foreground and illuminating the Panamint Mountains as the sun came over the horizon. I positioned myself where the water recedes allowing the geometrical forms of the salt pan to poke through the shoreline of the shallow lake. Finally, I had the proper conditions that would give me the color, values, contrasts, and drama that I required in my pre-visualized image. Location: Bad Water Salt Flats in Death Valley National Park, California. © RobertPark www.robert-park.com/

"Creator,sHand" Canyon Lands National Park, Utah By Robert Parkhttp://www.robert-park.com

"Creator's Hand" Canyon Lands National Park, Utah By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
For me Monument Basin is the highlight of a park with many highlights. It sits below the southernmost point of the Island in the Sky revealing canyons, slots, gorges, mesas, buttes, arches. Combined together it creates some of the most outstanding landscapes I have ever seen. After millions of years the erosion that continues today began. The results are the 2,000-foot deep canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers cutting through the heart of Canyonlands. As I stood at the rim of this most magnificent vista on a fall morning with clouds breaking from an earlier storm I was greeted with this most stunning glimpse of creation. Location Monument Basin, Canyon Lands National Park, Utah © RobertPark www.robert-park.com

"Dune Pool" Snow Canyon State Park, Utah By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com

"Dune Pool" Snow Canyon State Park, Utah By Robert Park http://www.robert-park.com, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr:Dune Pool Named after Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, who were early Utah leaders. It contains some of the most beautiful petrified dunes on the Colorado Plateau. All of this is set against a stunning backdrop of towering sandstone cliffs in red and white, and peaks and valleys of jumbled black lava rock interspersed with serpentine sandy washes carved from the red and white Navajo sandstone in the Red Mountains. I have visited here many times after rains and the shallow pools create incredible variety amidst the swirling petrified sandstone dunes. Location Snow Canyon State Park, Utah © Robert Park www.robert-park.com/

"Heart Wood" Zion National Park, Utah" By Robert Park

"Heart Wood" Zion National Park, Utah" By Robert Park, a photo by Robert Park Photography on Flickr.

Via Flickr: Heart Wood"
I love trees. They take on many attributes and colors and evoke emotions that run the gamut. Some would say that they speak to us.
This scrub oak in Zion caught my attention as I explored the underside of it, revealing a canopy of branches emanating from the trunk like arteries from a heart. As I jockeyed around I discovered a striking heart shape as the oak came alive in front of me.
Location Zion National Park, Utah
© Robert Park www.robert-park.com/