The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness straddles the Arizona-Utah border with 112,500 acres of land. This is an area of soaring red walls enclosing serpentine canyons, tall escarpments and broad plateaus, extremely rugged and starkly beautiful. Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness is considered to be one of the premier canyon backpacking destinations on Earth.
Pictured above is the Wave, a sandstone rock formation located on the slopes of the Coyote Buttes, in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, on the Colorado Plateau. It is famous among hikers and photographers for its colorful, undulating forms and the rugged, trackless hike required to reach it. The Jurassic Navajo Sands rick tone Formation is the foundation of the Wave. Nearly 200 million years ago, this region was a sandy desert where huge dunes migrated across the landscape pushed by seasonal winds. What we see today are some of the original crossbedded dunes shaped into dramatic landforms and exposed by erosion from eons of runoff. The spectacular ribbons of various colors called Liesegang Bands, were formed by movement and precipitation of oxidizing materials such as iron and manganese by ground water. Thin veins or fins of calcite cut across the sandstone, adding another dimension to the landscape.

Taken with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM