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Glass Mountain, Temple of the Moon, Temple of the Sun
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My boot gives some scale of the folds in Glass Mountain
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Glass Mountain is sparkly, but it's hard to capture that in photos. Here you can see some sparkles and shiny surfaces.
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Glass Mountain is formed by crystals of selenite, a type of gypsum.
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The smaller (and more distant) Temple of the Moon to the left of the Temple of the Sun
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From this angle, the Temple of the Moon looks a bit like a Sphinx
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This view of the Temple of the Sun brings to mind an old sailing ship with a figurehead at the front
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When I got closer to the cliff shown in the prvious picture, the layered nature of the rocks was clear
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The dark rocks on top are the result of the volcanic past
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Basalt boulders in the foreground and sandstone monuments in the background.
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More basalt boulders and sandstone cliffs
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The sinkhole is 50' across and 200' deep
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The hole is full of rubble. While I was there, a couple of kids were throwing rocks down, making their contribution to filling the hole in.
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A sandstone cliff next to the gypsum sinkhole
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This looks like an ancient basalt intrusion into a crack in the older sandstone, resulting in a fin.
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Another view of a fin
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As the road climbs out of Cathedral Valley, I get a better overview of the monuments
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The previous photo was used to make the left end of this panorama
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