River Canyon, Texas

Of tectonics and Texas

Santa Elena Canyon's walls put the 'Big' in Big Bend National Park as they stretch 1,500 feet into the blue Texas sky. This desert landscape feels as old as time, but it's relatively young geologically: Most formations here result from rough-and-tumble tectonics within the past 100 million years. The resulting tossed and turned bedrock was later eroded by the (even younger) Rio Grande, forming deep gorges whose sediment layers lie at various odd angles. The canted cliffs in this shot are just a hint at the park's extreme elevation differences: More than 6,000 feet separate Big Bend's highest and lowest points.