Visitors Along a Terraced Rim Path at Mather Point

A group of visitors walks and gathers along a railed path on a canyon rim, some leaning on the fence to look out while others head down a curving stone walkway. Beyond them the canyon opens into a wide basin of red and tan rock, its buttes and ridges layered in rows toward a flat, hazy horizon. Shadows from the clouds darken parts of the far walls, while low sunlight warms the nearer slopes. A few small pines and shrubs grow beside the path, and the sky is a deep blue with large white clouds.

Mather Point is a well-known viewpoint on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and the path shown here is part of the rim area that the National Park Service reworked to make walking and viewing easier. The canyon's banded walls record millions of years of rock deposition, and their colours shift noticeably with the angle of the sun. Early or late light brings out the most contrast between the layers. The image suits a wide desktop monitor, where the distant buttes have room to read, though the people in the lower left will stay noticeable on any screen.

More like this: Storm Light Over the Canyon's Red Buttes.