Blue Mesa

Another favourite of mine from the archives. Blue Mesa is a geologic feature located in the Petrified Forest NP, in northeastern Arizona. This park is one of two national parks situated adjacent to one another, the other being the Painted Desert NP. The following map, courtesy of the US National Parks Service shows the configuration of the two parks and the location of Blue Mesa.

Blue Mesa is a sedimentary structure consisting of thick deposits of grey, blue, purple, and green mudstones and minor sandstone beds, the most prominent of which is the Newspaper Rock Sandstone. This unit is best exposed in the Tepees area of the park. The Blue Mesa Member is approximately 234 million years old. I was able to get my photograph from the top of the mesa, looking out over the desert below. The sky cooperated on that day and I was favoured with some fascinating cloud formations and colour to complement the vibrant earth tones of the desert.

This picture is a high dynamic range photograph, created from three stacked exposures, blended together to produce a single image. An interesting consequence of using this technique results from the delay between each shot, in this case fractions of a second. The clouds  were being propelled along fairly quickly by the wind. So in each individual exposure, the clouds are in a slightly different position and of a slightly different shape. They are the sole area of the three exposures that do not align exactly in the finished image and this creates a softer, slightly blurred appearance that implies movement. Clouds in the distance are also moving but the amount of movement relative to the camera position is much less and the misalignment between images is not perceptible.

I like the blend of colours in the scene and of course the cloud patterns.

Both national parks are beautiful and fascinating places to visit. I would recommend them both to anyone traveling in the area.