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Geological Wonder for James P


Geological Wonder for James P
Photo Information
Copyright: Janice Smith (lovenature) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 837 W: 62 N: 1284] (4578)
Genre: Landscapes
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-06-22
Categories: Savannah
Camera: Canon 30D, Canon EFS 17-85 IS USM
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/320 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Geological Wonders [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-06-25 6:33
Viewed: 517
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 18
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Dedicated to Jamesp. (James Parker)

Writing On Stone Provincial Park has to be one of my favorite places to visit in Alberta. I just love the unique rock formations, especially in the evening when the sun is low in the sky.

Approximately 85 million years ago a huge inland sea covered much of central north america. Writing On Stone was located in this sea and sand was deposited on it's shore which slowly compacted to create sandstone rock.

It took millions of years but the beach on the inland sea became buried. The weight of the material that covered the sand started to compact into sandstone rock. What we see today is the exposed sandstone rock and beautiful hoodoo formations.

A Hoodoo is made of sandstone which has been cemented together with calcite, silica or iron oxide. Parts of the sandstone are very hard and others are very soft leading to very unique erosion pattern. Hoodoos have three parts, a caprock, hard layer and soft rock on the bottom.

During the last ice age the Sweet Grass Hills in the distance (Montana) where spared being covered in Ice, the same goes for the Cypress Hills about 200km to the NE. The hills are mainly made of Igneous stock from volcanic activity.

Another reason why I love to come here is the diverse wildlife, birds and plants. The area is know for Pronghorn, deer, rattlesnakes, bull snakes, garter snakes, horned lizards (very rare), bats, very cute cottontail rabbits, beaver, muskrats, coyote, fox, raccoons, bobcat, yellow bellied marmot, turkey vulture. There are many different species of birds to watch. And flowers, there are to many varieties to list.

This is area is an important location for the native indians. The area is know for it's pictographs and petroglyphs. There is a self guided tour to see the rock art. A huge battle between was fought here in the 1800's which is also shown in the rocks.

James, I hope I brightened your day.

Hand Held
Adanac, Jamesp, Hormon_Manyer, eng55, gracious, bahadir, Miss_Piggy, septama, Art_R, oscarromulus has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Jamesp: Geological Wonderslovenature 1 06-25 07:57
To Adanac: River Flowslovenature 1 06-25 07:43
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello My Dear Friend,
What a gorgeous scene you dedicated to our amazing friend James. The Milk River Valley with its incredible formations, the Sweet Grass Hills in the background, and look at all the GREEN grass from the recent rains. I love the evening light and how it makes the hoodoos look as well. Beautiful landscape, composition and dedication. Outstanding job Janice, thank you for sharing.
Rick
PS Were the river flows up a tad?

Hello and thank you Janice :)

A beautiful shot of these hoodoos (I have seen some in ALberta, but I am not sure they were here).

A lovely composition - I like the hills in the BG - and also the distribution of green space in the shot.

Thanks again

Janice

Hi Janice,
Beautiful landscape and dedication. Lovely place - not the best for my so-honoured fungi, but for flowers and birds it's a paradise. Focus is a bit soft though. But a lovely composition overall, congrats and tfs, also for the informative note.
Greetings from Hungary, László

  • Great 
  • eng55 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 474 W: 3 N: 474] (1475)
  • [2008-06-25 9:50]

Hi Janice,
Beautiful place.Well caught,framed and composed.
Thanks for posting.

Hello Janice,
Many thanks for sharing this great landscape of rock formation with the awesome texture and patterns over it!
good pov with great depth, beautiful colour and superb details
well done
best regards
Tony

Great landscape shot Janice. TFS. Regards,
Bahadır

Hallo Janice
The extreme wide-angle works well with these huge rocks. The composition is very good, and I really like the combination of browns, blues and green and all other in between. This is really a great shot and can easily go through as a place out of a fantasy world or destination. I think most people have said what needs to be said about this picture, so I'll just add that this is a PPPP – Pretty perfect picture photo. Great shot, and I like the title and dedication too. Thanks for sharing.
Kind regards
Anna

What a stunning scenery, I love the contrast between the pale reedish rocks outcrop in the foreground with the grassy hills and blue mountain in the distance. The detail is really great, I could easily see the low angle cross stratification there (sometimes called as cross bedding) the inclined bedform could be use to infer the depositional direction back to the time when the formation formed, TFS

  • Great 
  • Art_R Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 201 W: 16 N: 483] (1995)
  • [2008-06-27 8:00]

Hi Janice , lovely landscape photo , I have lived in Alberta all of my 38 years and never before heard of this park , now I am very anxious to go there :-) perhaps it gets overlooked because of Waterton's popularity , but it looks / sounds like a place for me to see , thanks so much for your post.

regards
Art

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