Mules Ears & Gilson Butte, San Rafael Desert, Utah

The first rays of daylight illuminate two clusters of Mules Ears anchored in a sand dune near the San Rafael Reef in southern Utah. An eroded tower of Entrada Sandstone rises starkly off the flat desert floor like a ship mired in sand in this photograph captured north of Hanksville, Utah. This region in the San Rafael Desert of central Utah lies in the rain shadow of the Wasatch Plateau and thus receives less than five inches of precipitation each year. These dry conditions allow for the formation of numerous small shifting dune fields, many of which are covered with a profusion of wildflowers each spring if the previous winters rains have been generous.