2110_0293 Grasslands
We spent a spectacular day hiking among these buttes and rolling sand hills. The exposed, dead roots in the foreground are Creeping Juniper, a prostrate evergreen shrub that is common in our area. You can see the living plants growing in clusters throughout this photo, along with rabbitbrush and native grass that - unfortunately - I didn't take time to identify. It may be Northern Wheat Grass (a wild guess).
The shattered rock appears to be ironstone, perhaps the remnants of a concretion - I'm full of wild guesses today, but I have seen ironstone concretions in this national park. When dinosaurs roamed, this entire area was a vast, shallow seabed, so conditions were favourable for the development of concretions.
Botanical and geological specifics aside, the dispersal pattern of these rock fragments led me to this composition. Patterns out of chaos, especially in a primal landscape, always pull me in.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
2110_0293 Grasslands
We spent a spectacular day hiking among these buttes and rolling sand hills. The exposed, dead roots in the foreground are Creeping Juniper, a prostrate evergreen shrub that is common in our area. You can see the living plants growing in clusters throughout this photo, along with rabbitbrush and native grass that - unfortunately - I didn't take time to identify. It may be Northern Wheat Grass (a wild guess).
The shattered rock appears to be ironstone, perhaps the remnants of a concretion - I'm full of wild guesses today, but I have seen ironstone concretions in this national park. When dinosaurs roamed, this entire area was a vast, shallow seabed, so conditions were favourable for the development of concretions.
Botanical and geological specifics aside, the dispersal pattern of these rock fragments led me to this composition. Patterns out of chaos, especially in a primal landscape, always pull me in.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.