Postcard from Dance Hall Rock

I think in a previous post, I mentioned briefly our trip down to Dancing Hall Rock…39 miles down an unpaved washboard road that I hope never to see again. Thank God we were in Dave’s SUV…but I sure felt every undulation in that long, long road.

As a sidebar, I always thought the washboard effect was caused by either water or road grading. I was wrong. A washboard road is caused by autos traveling greater than 5 mph on an unpaved road. The more cars that travel the road, the greater the rippling. So I guess our trip down Hole-in-the-Rock road added to the washboard effect. Apologies to all of you who go down that road from now on.  

Anyway, Hole-in-the-Rock Road lies of a few miles east of Escalante, UT…off of Highway 12. It was built by Mormon settlers to help other settlers coming up from the south get to Utah. Most of the country in that area is flat desert country with some hills and big rocks along the way.

Dance Hall Rock is one of those big, big sandstone rocks shaped like an amphitheater. It got its name from the Mormon settlers who would get together there for socializing and dancing. Apparently the rock has some amazing acoustic qualities that make music sound louder and more pleasing.  All this socializing happened in and around the 1880’s.  Being sandstone, it is very susceptible to water.

Our purpose that day was not to make music, but to climb up the rock to find large and small and deep sinkholes where plants and trees grow straight up. What you see here is a smaller sinkhole that has a  variety of desert plants. There were larger and deeper holes also up on top and you will see one of those soon, with a very large tall tree growing straight out of it. The light was very difficult to work with this day as the top of the rock is in bright sunlight and the deep holes are in strong shadows. A little Photoshop work should make it a better image. I will publish it here as soon as I have finished.

I wish I knew a little more about geology so I could tell you how many years it took to make this hole. Its all driven by wind and rain and as time passes, the hole gets deeper and deeper. The wind deposits topsoil over time and brings the plant seeds that grab on to the soil and grow. Nature is so wondrous…there is a great line from the original Jurassic Park film, “Life always finds a way.”   It did here.

(To see a larger version of this image, just click on it)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com…or visit my Flickr Page.