The lighting in this image is what makes it so memorable to me. The quality of the light is soft - not glaring - yet strong enough to sculpt the outlines of the spires against the shadowed basin south of the Badlands wall. The reduced contrast range in the scene allowed for shadow and highlight detail to be captured without the need for extreme contrast manipulation often required in scenes like this.

The largest structure on the left reminds me of a hand whose finger is pointed toward the sky.

Canon EOS Rebel T2i, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5/5.6L IS @ 400mm - effective focal length = 560mm, 1/800 sec @f/8, ISO equiv 400, Calumet 8000 Carbon Fiber Tripod, Gitzo G1276 Ballhead