Zebra Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante Nat’l Mon, Utah

This narrow slot canyon is tucked away off a wide-sandy wash several miles from the nearest road in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. A small intermittent stream cut through this vividly-striped layer of Navajo sandstone to produce these marvelous, sensual forms. This sandstone layer originated as a vast sea of drifting dunes which covered this region 190 million years ago. The cycle is completed today as the sandstone erodes back into new dunes of drifting sand. Many small and intimate gems such as this are scattered throughout the 1.9 million acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Back in the 1930s, a truly vast monument, including these canyons, was proposed that would have extended the entire length of the Colorado River from the Arizona border to the town of Moab, Utah.