This remote cluster of sandstone domes, located midway along the Arizona/Utah border, is an odd and entrancing geologic wonder. Its origin is the subject of speculation. The colorfully layered formation may once have been saturated dunes that contorted, the result of an earthquake, a tumbling slide, or both. Either way, some unknown event whipped up a frothy geologic concoction that froze in time.

Exposure to the elements causes its surface to crack into polygonal shapes as it expands and contracts with heat and cold and interacts with seasonal cycles of wetting and drying. Spring catch basins fill with rain, host algae, insects, and other species, including tadpoles that metamorphose into frogs.

Arriving here meant slipping through miles of deep sand on a winding track, with no indication of my destination until I drove over the last rise and saw the twists, swirls, and ridges of White Pocket. Sometimes a landscape is so startling that it is difficult to find footing, to decide how to react, and to proceed. Circumnavigating this relatively small area, less than a square mile, in the silent, early-morning desert was mystifying and mystical.