Mirror lake, Uinta Mountains, Duchesne County, Utah
Photographer: Ken Krahulec
Mirror Lake nestles among 11,000-foot peaks of the western Uinta Mountains. The rocks of the Uintas, consisting largely of sandstone and shale of the Precambrian-age Uinta Mountain Group, contain microscopic bacteria nearly 800 million years old that likely represent Utah’s oldest fossils.
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Juab County, Utah.
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Baked by the summer sun, clay on the floor of an ephemeral pond in Utah’s west desert produces an expanse of mud cracks. Such playas, or pans, are common throughout the Great Basin; many, like the Bonneville Salt Flats, are floored by saline minerals.