Exploring Escalante

Spectacular effects are caused when sunlight illuminates the brilliantly colored Jurassic sandstone of Escalante. In September of 1996, President Clinton designated 1.7 million acres of the Utah desert as The Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument.

For several weeks Aurora photographer Ian Austin traveled through the nooks and crannies Escalante. "Once inside the monument, you notice the quiet... not the absence of sound, but the absence of humans. You hear the wind, your footsteps and little else," Austin said.

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