Sand, Rock, Water, Time

Except at road-cuts and at the tops of the relatively few high mountains, what you see traveling through the east is either biological, architectural, agricultural or industrial. Travel two days west of the Mississippi by car though, and the word geology takes on a different meaning. Instead of being just a branch of science, a topic of study that deals with rocks and the formation of the earth, it becomes the best word for what is moving past your windows as you sit behind the wheel of your car, or what your feet rest on as you make your way along the fragile edge of a wash.
These are distilled geological details found while hiking and driving through Utah and South Dakota at different times in the summer of 2011. A larger collection of the same name is available as a book.