Portal to the La Sals
Monoliths and eroded walls in the Windows section of Arches National Park catch the warm light of the setting sun, framing the snowy La Sal Mountains to the west. This is one of my favorite places to watch and photograph sunset on the Colorado Plateau.
The compression of geological, biological, and climatic diversity is quite amazing. The beautiful orange rock of the Entrada formation, sitting on the white sandstone of the Carmel (Dewey Bridge) formation were deposited as much as 200 million years before the strata that make up the La Sals. The Piñon pine- Juniper woodland in the foreground occurs in an environment similar to nearby deserts, with 0.5 inches (13 mm) of annual precipitation and an average temperature of 58 °F (14 °C). In contrast the alpine zone on the summits of the La Sals, 7000 feet ( m) higher, has vegetation which resembles that of Arctic tundra, has an average annual temperature of around freezing, and receives more than 10 times the amount of precipitation than that of Arches NP. (#1 very late add)
Portal to the La Sals
Monoliths and eroded walls in the Windows section of Arches National Park catch the warm light of the setting sun, framing the snowy La Sal Mountains to the west. This is one of my favorite places to watch and photograph sunset on the Colorado Plateau.
The compression of geological, biological, and climatic diversity is quite amazing. The beautiful orange rock of the Entrada formation, sitting on the white sandstone of the Carmel (Dewey Bridge) formation were deposited as much as 200 million years before the strata that make up the La Sals. The Piñon pine- Juniper woodland in the foreground occurs in an environment similar to nearby deserts, with 0.5 inches (13 mm) of annual precipitation and an average temperature of 58 °F (14 °C). In contrast the alpine zone on the summits of the La Sals, 7000 feet ( m) higher, has vegetation which resembles that of Arctic tundra, has an average annual temperature of around freezing, and receives more than 10 times the amount of precipitation than that of Arches NP. (#1 very late add)