Early-season snow dusts the soaring sandstone towers known as "The Court of the Patriarchs" in this panorama photograph of Zion National Park. Named by the first European settlers in this region over 100 years ago, these formations epitomize the grandeur that led to the designation of Zion National Park in 1919. The Navajo Sandstone of the Colorado Plateau attains its maximum exposed thickness of nearly 2300 feet here in the Zion region. A vast sea of windblown sand similar to today's Sahara covered much of Utah, Arizona and northwest New Mexico nearly 190 million years ago. As it was subsequently buried under additional layers of sediment, dissolved minerals in groundwater percolated through the grains to cement them together into what we now call the Navajo Sandstone. This panoramic photograph was captured with a 6x17 panorama format camera. All photos in these fine art photo galleries may be ordered as fine art framed prints or for stock photography usage.