Cinder Ridge and Thunderhead Cloud, Sunset Crater, Arizona
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Near Sunset Crater volcano on northern Arizona's Coconino Plateau are numerous smaller volcanic cinder cones, hills, and ridges. The south side of these geologically young formations are typically bare black cinders, lightly rippled by wind, rain and snowmelt. The north slopes, being much more shady, are typically colonized by Ponderosa pine forest.
At the top of the ridge is where the cool north facing side and the hot south facing side meet. A transition zone across a very short distance.
In this image, the pine trees seem to marching up and over the top. And they are, though not individually. It is the forest as a whole that is creeping over the edge, patiently extending its reach into the much more hostile black slope with its searing summer temperatures. A summer monsoon season thunderhead towers into the heavens far to the north.
Photo location: Coconino National Forest, near Sunset Crater National Monument, north of Flagstaff, Arizona.
