(Scroll down to start with Part One)
Despite my pooped pins, this parched person makes good time; that gives me about an hour before anyone else shows up. This is my second time visiting The Wave, but it amazes me all over again - I’ve never seen anything quite like it, it’s truly a wonder of the world. (Yep, that's me standing in The Wave, below.)
The Wave consists of Jurassic Navajo Sandstone and is named for its resemblance to a cresting ocean wave. Its coloration is a wide range of red, orange, yellow, white, and purple hues largely controlled by iron oxide mineralogies that document diagenetic (the conversion of sediment into rock) fluid flow and chemical reaction fronts.There were at least four distinct coloration events: an initial reddening by iron oxides; a bleaching event that pulled some of the oxides back out of the rock; a second introduction of iron oxides, this time tending towards black to purple and then a final overprinting of yellow banding.
The Wave follows a large natural fracture in a cliff that has been enlarged by water. The smooth bowl is a wind-scoured channel whose dimensions are just right for it to act as a sort of venturi, effectively increasing wind speed within it, further sculpting and enhancing textural differences and highlighting the colors.
Even knowing how The Wave was formed and seeing pictures beforehand cannot prepare you at all for the awesome-ness of it. It’s, well… just incredible. Unbelievable. Surreal. All these things and more. No words seem good enough to describe it.
Finally, another one of the fortunate twenty shows up; that’s my cue to go off and explore other intriguing parts of CB that I passed up previously in favor of spending alone time with the one and only ‘The Wave’.Next: More Fascinating Features of Coyote Buttes North
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2 comments:
Cool, cool, cool! What more can I say?
Hot, hot, hot?
;-)
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