Red and Purple Rock Ridges

Chiselled cliffs like this are a common sight here in Utah's curiously named Capitol Reef National Park. Neither underwater nor near any capitol building, the park is actually named after both its treacherous terrain (settlers used the term "reef" to refer to rocky ridges that made much of this area impassable) and its stately stone domes that bring to mind a famous landmark in Washington, DC. Those big white domes stand in stark contrast to rust-tinted cliffs like this one, owing to the park's unique and once highly active geology. Capitol Reef is composed of many distinct layers of sediment extending kilometres below the surface and tilted at an angle. Erosion and tectonics exposed layers at differing rates over millions of years, causing huge variations in both elevation and colour.