Grand Canyon Bright Angel Trail and Coconino Sandstone
March 15, 2015
Photographer: Cindy Todd
Summary Author: Cindy Todd
Grand Canyon National Park is my personal cathedral. Its sharp, eroded spires pointing to the sky and its many multi-color rock strata can take your breath away. Other layers may look bland but are fascinating nonetheless. Shown above is a little waterfall along Bright Angel Trail. The Coconino Sandstone layer at top and left (inset photo) is approximately 250 million years old. In essence, it's a slice of an ancient desert and its dunes. An exciting aspect of this layer is that you can see the cross sections created by prevailing winds blowing grains of sand. In places in this layer, it's actually possible to detect the dunes before they solidified to rock. It doesn't take much imagination to see the actual sand dunes themselves in your mind's eye.
Photo details: Top - Camera Maker: NIKON; Camera Model: COOLPIX L610; Focal Length: 5.0mm (35mm equivalent: 28mm); Aperture: ƒ/3.5; Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320); ISO equiv: 400; Bottom - same except: Focal Length: 16mm (35mm equivalent: 89mm); Aperture: ƒ/4.6; Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160).