Cruising slowly along the Park road, you encounter these bare, eroded and colorful clay buttes. The sedimentary material (called "shales" after hardening) was deposited underwater over eons in an ancient sea that covered this part of the Southwest. Red stratas are particularly rich in oxydized iron, after the atmosphere became oxygen-rich and could support life.

[ProfessorBuzz]

Holy smokes! What colour!

[MikeNArk]

Now that is a nice photo which shows exactly why it is the Painted Desert. Well done.

[Kendra59]

That is a great image! The colours really grab your attention. We have similar formations around Drumheller, AB which is where the Royal Tyrell Museum is located... and lots of dinosaur fossils were found.

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Last edited by Kendra59; 07-31-2021 at 07:25 AM. Reason: Added information

[5ks]

Holy smokes! What colour!

Really - and it's a matter of taste if there's too much color (saturation). Hard to believe it looks like that IRL.

[RICHARD L.]

But it does IRL. It's not called "PAINTED DESERT" for nothing ... Like Copernicus said about our Planet : "But ... it turns ...".

Light is very bright (around the 36th parallel), air is very dry (10 % or less) and the ground is mostly devoid of vegetation, so ...

[angkymac]

Looks like a place I should go.
Angky.