Thank you for visiting my online gallery for White Pocket, Arizona, a magical area in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. I hope you enjoy your time perusing these images as much as I did exploring this ancient landscape.

While researching areas to photograph around Coyote Buttes South one afternoon, I ended up going down a rabbit hole on information about White Pocket, a location of which I had no knowledge but was only an hour or so of 4-wheel driving away from Coyote Buttes South. And when I read “White Pocket is an isolated, notoriously hard-to-reach patch of sandstone hidden within the desert” I knew I had to make time to visit the site. This rocky outcrop surrounded by endless dunes of sand is approximately one-hundred acres in size (about one square mile) and sits in a remote region known for its colorful sandstone and unique formations.


From my googling, it seems the consensus points to White Pocket’s origins occurring from a series of large sand-slides the plummeted into a pool or oasis. From this high-pressure event, over millions of years and through a process of erosion from wind and water, the layers of red and yellow sandstone were slowly revealed. The white rock that appears like “brain-rock” or cauliflower represent the original dune field that has since split into round and oval shapes like small VW bugs. And in reality, scientists are still figuring the ins and outs of this area!

Nevertheless, my time at White Pocket was amazing. A friend and I spent a few days and nights out there and mostly had the daytime to ourselves. In the evening, the three or four people that had come in with a tour departed, and we went to work with our cameras in the quickly fleeting, perfect light between sunset and sunrise.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. And yes, you will need a high clearance, 4wd vehicle to reach this remote area.