Red Rocks

You have to ease into the vortex, even though it comes upon you rather suddenly.  One minute you're climbing through Coconino National Forest, filling your eyes with thick green conifers.  Then the road bends and this is there:

I was naughty.  I couldn't help myself.  I had no side-seat driver.

I took my own pictures while piloting thousands of pounds of metal.

Like I said, I couldn't help myself.

It helped that everyone else on the road at that moment was also slowing down to oohhhh and ahhhh.

The red is from iron ore.

Sometimes it's orange.

Some of the tops have been sheered off by glaciers

but most of the formations resemble sand castles, dribbled over time.

Parked in one of the many Scenic View pullouts, I found myself counting the layers.

I was looking at a picture of deep time, imagining ancient creatures crushed within the walls.  

Sedona does that to you.