Traveling to Arizona, we stopped for a day in St. George, Utah, a city of 77,000 people, located in the southwestern part of the state, on the Utah-Arizona border. St. George’s climate is warmer than the rest of Utah, and typical of the Mojave Desert in which it lies, with a subtropical desert climate, featuring long, hot summers and brief, cool winters. It has become a popular winter escape for snowbirds, attracted by the moderate temperatures, abundant sunshine and the many golf courses.
The area is very scenic and we had the opportunity to visit nearby Snow Canyon State Park, featuring a canyon carved from the red and white Navajo sandstone in the Red Mountains. It’s very typical of southwest landscape and boasts some very stunning views.
Snow Canyon was formed hundreds of millions ago when quartzite sand blew in, creating gigantic sand dunes. Eventually these sand dunes were covered with sediments and cemented into the red and white Navajo Sandstone that makes up much of the park. Water cut through the rock, creating canyons.
Volcanoes were quite common in the area as recently as 10,000 years ago. Lava flowed through the canyons, filling them with basalt and creating new canyons in the park. You will observe the dark, basaltic rock strewn across the landscape in many of the photos.
I’m sharing some of my photographs from our stop there yesterday, a brief slideshow featuring my favourites. It was a great day for photography. The striking blue sky and the diverse cloud patterns were a great complement to the vibrant colour of the desert. As always, click on the right side of the pictures to advance; on the left to reverse direction.
