Wilderness Portraits Stock Images by Lloyd Paul Aiello

Sunrise at Temple of the Sun

Sitting at the base of the Temple of the Moon, LB (age 8) gazes at sunrise reflecting off the 400-foot-tall Temple of the Sun in Cathedral Valley, Capital Reef National Park, Utah. The spectacular monolith is composed of Entrada Sandstone deposited 160 million years ago in the Jurassic period. This fine-grained sandstone is formed by the deposition of silt in tidal flats. It crumbles easily to a fine sand which is rapidly removed by water, thus creating the sheer walls rising directly from their base. Seen two thirds of the way up the face, the Entrada sandstone is covered by a hard cap of grayish-green sandstone and siltstone of the Curtis Sandstone formation, protecting the monolith from erosion. Above the Curtis sandstone formation is the thinly-bedded, reddish-brown siltstone of the Summerville sandstone formation.

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Image Size: 4191x2784 / 54.2MB; www.WildernessPortraits.com; adventurous age age 8 atmospheric awe blue boy brown child color colorful descriptors desert format green horizontal landscape master orange people places remote season solitude sunlight type vast view white wilderness winter
Contained in galleries: Arid Lands & Deserts, Children of the Wilderness, Landscapes, Utah, Size & Proportion, Recent Stock Images, Favorite Stock Images

Sitting at the base of the Temple of the Moon, LB (age 8) gazes at sunrise reflecting off the 400-foot-tall Temple of the Sun in Cathedral Valley, Capital Reef National Park, Utah. The spectacular monolith is composed of Entrada Sandstone deposited 160 million years ago in the Jurassic period. This fine-grained sandstone is formed by the deposition of silt in tidal flats. It crumbles easily to a fine sand which is rapidly removed by water, thus creating the sheer walls rising directly from their base. Seen two thirds of the way up the face, the Entrada sandstone is covered by a hard cap of grayish-green sandstone and siltstone of the Curtis Sandstone formation, protecting the monolith from erosion. Above the Curtis sandstone formation is the thinly-bedded, reddish-brown siltstone of the Summerville sandstone formation.