Balanced Rock

Balanced Rock is one of the signature sights of Arches: a boulder the size of a building perched on a narrow, eroding pedestal, with a smaller companion formation beside it. The neck wears away faster than the cap, and one day the whole thing will come down — it already lost its little sibling, "Chip Off the Old Block," to a winter freeze.

Photographed June 2003. The wide framing keeps both formations in the picture against a clean dark sky. The great balanced cap and its slender stem are the kind of thing that looks impossible right up until you see it.