In the Cleft

While in the Valley of Fire, we parked at one of the loop trail heads. I spotted this scene along with my room mate, Bob Hansen, right away. It was literally at the edge of the parking lot. Bob and I thought it a bit humorous that the rest of the group buzzed right by in a rush to hit the trail. The initial attraction to this scene were the two large boulders caught in the cleft. At the floor of this rock face a tree was growing to give a sense of scale. Bob worked that angle for some time and I am sure he made a very nice image. I made a few snaps of that too, but I was drawn to the caught boulders and sought a higher vantage point to focus on them. The boulders are rather large- likely as much as 15 feet long each and I'd guess they weigh upwards of 15 tons each.