On my trip to the southwestern United States we stopped here at Monument Valley.  Its located on the border between Utah and Arizona and is part of the Colorado Plateau.  Pictures of this place are used everywhere (including on Led Zeppelin videos).

The sand on the ground area of the valley is made up of Cutler Red siltstone deposited by the rivers that once came through.  The red colour comes from the amount of iron oxide.  The uplifted rocks or buttes are made up of three layers.  On the bottom is Oregon Rock shale followed by de Chelley sandstone in the middle and Moenkopi shale on the top.  Between 1948 and 1967 some parts of the valley were mined for Uranium deposits.  Monument valley encompasses the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

 During my trip to Alaska we took a short float plane flight outside the city of Ketchikan to this river.  The bears frequent it during the late summer because of all the salmon swimming up the stream.  There were so many bears around in fact, that our guide was carrying a gun.  Nope, I'm not kidding. :P  A little frightening but still worth it to watch the bears feeding.  During the hour or so that we were there, about five different bears came out to eat in the river.

Ketchikan is located on the Pacific south coast of Alaska (beside British Columbia, Canada).  Its claim to fame is that it has the largest number of standing totem poles.  It is also referred to as the "Salmon capital of the world".