On rare years when the conditions are right in the arid landscape of the Badlands, in the American West, wildflowers burst into a display of colour for just a few days.
The vegetation in the region has adapted to the climate, with just a small amount of moisture the desert can become coloured with sweeping fields of Scorpion Weed, Beeplant and the flowers of the Pincushion Cacti. These blooms can be very short-lived to conserve moisture.
Photographs by Guy Tal
Above the California Desert (by Brad Gillette)
The salt crust is colored red by dense colonies of halophilic archaebacteria.
This is, by the way, for realsies. The issue here is that it’s in a desert of Iran.
The Wave, above, is in Arizona. Its unique appearance was caused by erosion of sandstone during the Jurassic period. But visiting the Wave? That’s a trick. The agency which administers in only issues twenty visiting licenses per day, which are selected by lottery.
(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
Antelope Canyon, Arizona.