Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

High rough contours of the Sierra Nevadas.

Gem Lake Dam, CA

The vertical stroke of white is a a high narrow mountain dam in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Natural amphitheatre near June Lake, CA

A natural amphitheature-like construction, likely another member of the Mono-Inyo crater chain.

Wilson Butte, CA

A strange, perfectly circular upthrust in a high mountain valley of Eastern California, Wilson Butte is part of a series of recent explosive volcanic constructs near Mono Lake. Wilson Butte itself is only about 1500 years old.

Montgomery Peak, White Mountains, CA

High dry mountains on the California/Nevada border.

Dry wash road, Nevada

Perfectly straight road crossing a dry wash in the deep Nevada wilderness.

Dry pan in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada

A dry colorful lake-pan formation in Western Nevada.

Alluvial ridges in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada

Carved out desert ridges in Western Nevada.

Albemarle lithum mine, Silver Peak, Nevada

Poisonous blue and whites of the great evaporation ponds of a Nevada lithium mine.

Ridge near Alkali, Nevada

A lovely desert ridge with many fine wrinkles of topology, near Alkali, Nevada.

Alkali, Nevada

Alkali Flat is a great dry ex-lake by the ghost town of Alkali, Nevada.

Tonopah Speedway, Nevada

On the East side of town, the Tonopah Speedway is a perfect oval of dry brown racing track.

Airforce road, Tonopah, NV

On the Southwest side of Tonopah, Airforce Road climbs in a grey ribbon of switchbacks to a cluster of transmission gear atop Mt. Butler.

Tonopah, Nevada

Tonopah, Nevada is a little air-force town, nestled between cracks in the desert mountains.

Three paths divided in the Nevada Desert

Three long thin road divide from one another, each heading out a separate path through the broad Nevada desert valleys.

Ripple patterns near Warm Springs, Nevada

Another long-thin chain of rippling desert patterns, following a mostly-dry watercourse.

Ripple patterns near Warm Springs, Nevada

Long, rippling patterns of wilderness Nevada desert sands.

Nevada desert patterns

Dry circles of dark and light in the Nevada desert.

Nevada desert patterns

Curving patterns of sand and scrub in the Nevada desert.

Clearcut maze near Nevada-Utah border

These maze-like patterns, however, have nice sharp lines that definitely lead me to believe that they are man-made.

Blobby vegetation patterns near Greenwich, Utah

I don't know whether these patterns of forest and field are natural or cut, but they're certainly a lot of intriguing blobby shapes.

Forest remnant stripes, Utah

Tiny little stripes of forest remaining across a clearcut mountainside.

Crop circles, Milford, Utah

Closer look at some of the more complex irrigation circles near Milford, Utah.

Crop circles, Milford, Utah

Scattered patches of crop circles near Milford Utah.

Complex cropping in Loa, Utah

There's quite a lot of different stuff going on in one semicircular sweep of irrigation, making me wonder whether it's somebody's test station.

Thousand Lake Mountain, Utah

The oddly mis-named Thousand Lake Mountain may not have any lakes, but it at least has enough moisture to support a patchy covering of forests.

Folded rocks in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Another colors of rocks and canyons, folded and carved in multiple directions.

Folded rocks in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Folded layers of rock across the uplands of Capitol Reef National Park.

North side of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Massive long fault, with a wriggling watercourse on the bottom and folded broken lands above, on the Northern side of Capitol Reef National Park.

Colored bands on drainage fans, Utah

Different colored bands as these watercourses descend through geological layers.

Slot canyons under chocolate uplands, Utah

Deep narrow slot canyons in white rock beneath chocolate-colored uplands in Southern Utah.

Factory Butte, Utah

A steep narrow core and delicate feathery tentacles of protruding ridges mark the beautiful Factory Butte, between Canyonlands and Capitol Reef in Southern Utah.

North Caineville Mesa, Utah

North Caineville Mesa is a beautiful multi-lobed structure, several miles along its flat top, just a bit Northwest of Capitol Reef National Park.

Fault by North Caineville Mesa, Utah

Turning further and deeper into our look at the fault be North Caineville Mesa.

Fault by North Caineville Mesa, Utah

Another closer look at the layers of this fault, from another angle.

Fault by North Caineville Mesa, Utah

A long beautiful multi-colored fault line by the North Caineville Mesa in Southern Utah.

Mars in Utah

Some parts of the Utah deserts make me think of nothing so much as photographs of Mars.

Desert blobs, Utah

Slowly shifting blobs of red dunes in the Southern Utah desert.

Folded ridge, Utah

A long folded ridge elsewhere in the Southern Utah deserts.

Ripples and fins, Canyonlands National Park

More deep carved patterns of parallel rock fins in Canyonlands National Park.

Ripples and fins, Canyonlands National Park

Long parallel lines from rock fins, channeled out of the surfaces of Canyonlands National Park over many millennia of slow erosion.

Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park

Upheaval Dome is an an ancient and eroded impact crater on the Western side of the Canyonlands National Park, high ridge around a bowl with its own little peak poking up inside its middle.

Canyonlands Green River, Utah

On the West side of Canyonlands National Park, the land slopes down toward the Green River, where there are campsites in the wide forest edges of the river.

Canyonlands and White Rim Trail, Utah

Canyonlands National Park's three layers: the high thin ridges of its mesa, the middle wide shelf, and the lower valleys of the Colorado River. If you look carefully on the edges of the shelf, you can see the thin tracing line of the White Rim Trail.

San Juan River, Utah

Deep dark grooves of the San Juan river in Utah, upstream of the Grand Canyon.

Ridge-road X, Arizona

A dark road and ridge-line crossing one another in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Branching blobby mesa shapes on the outskirts of Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Blobby trailing mesa shapes on the outskirts of Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Stark cliffs and shadows of Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, Arizona

Mesas of Monument Valley.