A sea of swirling stone Feb 5, 2021

A sea of swirling stone

By showing you this coveted sight, we"re saving you a bit of an ordeal. For a close-up view like this of "The Wave," a whorled sandstone formation in the northern Arizona wilderness, you"d have to navigate a rugged and mostly trail-free route with a permit in your pocket (only a small number are available, offered via a daily lottery). But that"s just one day hike of many in the expansive Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, which encompasses almost 300,000 acres of Arizona and Utah canyonland.

© Dennis Frates/Alamy

palette

Today in History

Feb 5, 2018Iceberg off the coast of Antarctica
Feb 5, 2019Welcome to the Year of the Pig
Feb 5, 2020Frozen beauty
Feb 5, 2022Monarch butterflies in Angangueo, Mexico
Feb 5, 2023Monarch butterflies, Pismo Beach, California
Feb 5, 2024Western Monarch Day
Feb 5, 2025Scottish Blackface sheep, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Feb 5, 2026Salt evaporation ponds on the island of Gozo, Malta

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Jan 14, 2022Road to Sa Calobra, Majorca, Spain
Mar 4, 2021The most wonderful day of the year. Period.
Aug 9, 2025International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples
Dec 30, 2024Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Jul 3, 2021Diving into the underwater nirvana
Jul 23, 2020At the foot of Dubrovnik s Gibraltar
Nov 2, 2023Death Valley National Park, California
Aug 24, 2023Shark Fin Cove, California
Oct 25, 2023Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
Apr 19, 2021Rays on parade
Sep 11, 2018Inside the Oculus
Feb 9, 2022Ceremony Hall at Sweden s Icehotel
Jan 22, 2022Martinique
Aug 31, 2025Scotts Bluff National Monument, Gering, Nebraska
Jan 30, 2018Watson Lake in Granite Dells, Arizona
Nov 1, 2021Native American Heritage Month
Jan 7, 2021Of balloons and lost pantaloons
Feb 23, 2024Haghartsin Monastery, Armenia
Dec 8, 2023La Rocque Harbour, Island of Jersey
Aug 2, 2024Virgin Islands National Park established
Feb 13, 2024Mardi Gras
Jun 7, 2023Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico
Jul 8, 2018Travel Sunday: Flamenco in Granada, Andalusia, Spain
Jan 25, 2018Sami lavvu structures, Finnmark, Norway
Apr 24, 2020Celebrating 30 years of eye-opening images
Jan 12, 2022Take the Stairs Day
Jan 8, 2018Gardens by the Bay nature park, Singapore
Aug 2, 2021This reef is nowhere near the sea…
Jul 26, 2025International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem
Sep 13, 2023Hemakuta Hill, Hampi, India