Rivers & Canyons · Field Notes

Places in this lens

Select a place to open its note.

Arches

Arches National Park · Utah, USA 8 sites

Arches looks, at a glance, like a monument to wind: bare rock, no year-round streams, sand blowing across a road that seems too dry for anything to ha…
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Banff

Lake Louise · Alberta, Canada 7 sites

The color comes first, always.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
Big Bend

Big Bend National Park · Texas, USA 7 sites

This country looks bone-dry, and water carved every line of it.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time and Night Sky
Big Sur

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park · California, USA 5 sites

At McWay Falls, a creek that has spent its whole life going downhill finally runs out of ground — and simply keeps falling, off a cliff and into the o…
Also seen through Fog Coast
Blyde River Canyon

Blyde River Canyon · Mpumalanga, South Africa 8 sites

Long before there was a canyon here, there was simply very old rock — layered stone laid down when the crust itself was still young, and left mostly a…
Canyonlands

Island in the Sky · Utah, USA 5 sites

Stand at the edge of the mesa and you are standing on an island — not one of water, but of rock, with empty air on nearly every side.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Cape Perpetua

Cape Perpetua North Marine Protected Area · Oregon, USA 5 sites

Stand anywhere along Cape Perpetua and you are standing on the losing side of a very old argument.
Also seen through Fog Coast
Capitol Reef

Fruita · Utah, USA 7 sites

The floor of Fruita is not really rock so much as old water, set hard.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Chapada Diamantina

Chapada Diamantina · Bahia, Brazil 7 sites

Stand on almost any high point in Chapada Diamantina and the land around you breaks into islands.
Columbia River Gorge

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area · Oregon–Washington, USA 5 sites

The Columbia River did not wait for the mountains to move out of its way.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Durmitor

Durmitor · Žabljak, Montenegro 6 sites

Some of the lakes in Durmitor keep a secret: they fill with the spring melt, hold water through summer, and then, without warning, sink back into the…
Fish River Canyon

Fish River Canyon · ǁKaras, Namibia 5 sites

Look over the rim and it takes a moment to find the river at all — a thin, pale thread on the canyon floor, so far below that it seems too small to ha…
Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Village · Arizona, USA 9 sites

The Colorado River is older than the canyon it runs through.
Also seen through Night Sky
Hells Canyon

Hells Canyon Dam · Oregon–Idaho, USA 4 sites

Stand at the dam and the Snake River looks settled — concrete across the current, still water backed up behind it.
Iguazú Falls

Iguazú Falls · Misiones, Argentina 8 sites

Stand at any one overlook here and you'll swear you've seen the falls.
Kings Canyon

Cedar Grove Visitor Center · California, USA 5 sites

The canyon is more than a mile deep, and the river at the bottom did not dig most of it.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
Lassen

Lassen Volcanic National Park · California, USA 8 sites

Every creek at Lassen is cutting through rock that was liquid within the last few hundred thousand years — recent enough, geologically, that the argum…
Also seen through Volcanic
Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes · Lika-Senj, Croatia 8 sites

Most rivers argue with rock in only one direction: they cut, patiently, until a canyon opens where solid stone used to be.
Taroko Gorge

Taroko Gorge · Hualien, Taiwan 7 sites

Stand at almost any rail in this gorge and you're looking at an argument the water has been winning for a very long time.
The Black Canyon

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park · Colorado, USA 5 sites

The Black Canyon is a river's argument compressed into steep walls.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
The New River Gorge

Fayetteville · West Virginia, USA 5 sites

You can stand in the middle of Fayetteville and never guess a canyon is a few minutes away.
The North Cascades

Diablo Lake · Washington, USA 6 sites

Stand at the Diablo Lake Overlook and the water below does not look like a mountain lake.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
The Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest National Park · Arizona, USA 8 sites

Nothing at the Petrified Forest looks like it has anything to do with water.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
The Verdon Gorge

Gorges du Verdon · Provence, France 5 sites

The water is the wrong colour for rock country — a milky turquoise-green, the shade that gives the Verdon River its name.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
The Yellowstone

Upper Geyser Basin · Wyoming–Montana–Idaho, USA 6 sites

Water usually wins its long argument with rock by cutting down.
Also seen through Volcanic
Triglav

Triglav · Upper Carniola, Slovenia 7 sites

Stand at the top of the park and you are standing on an argument water settled before you arrived.
Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls · Southern Province, Zambia 9 sites

Stand at any viewpoint along the falls and you are looking at only the newest round of an argument the river has been having with this rock for longer…
Yosemite

Yosemite Valley · California, USA 9 sites

Stand on the valley floor and look up.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
Zion

Zion Canyon · Utah, USA 8 sites

Stand on the canyon floor and the river barely reaches your knees.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time