Big Dipper Gorge

Stars of the Big Dipper (the prominent figure -asterism- in constellation Ursa Major) are photographed over the Cathedral Gorge State Park, Nevada. This place was covered by a lake nearly a million years ago. The richly colored canyons are remnants of this ancient lakebed. Over centuries the lake began to gradually drain. Erosion on the exposed parts of sediment and gravel carved rivulets, splitting tiny cracks and fissures into larger and larger gullies and canyons.