Arches National Park United States

Legendary

Enjoy the beauty of these unique sandstone arches.

Photo by GPA Photo Archive

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In 2008, a massive stone arch called Wall Arch collapsed overnight without warning. No one saw it happen. One day it was there, and the next it was a pile of rubble on the canyon floor. It was a reminder that the landscape at Arches National Park is still actively changing, as it has been for 300 million years.

Arches sits on the Colorado Plateau in eastern Utah, about five miles north of Moab. The park contains more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches, the highest density of natural arches anywhere in the world.

That number keeps changing. Old arches collapse. New ones are slowly forming. An opening only needs to be three feet across in any direction to qualify as an arch.

The whole landscape sits above an ancient underground salt bed deposited 300 million years ago when a shallow sea covered the region and slowly evaporated. As that salt layer shifted and buckled over millions of years, the rock above it cracked, eroded, and carved itself into the formations you see today.

The park averages just 8 to 10 inches of rain per year. That sounds like too little to carve stone, but it's enough. Slightly acidic rainwater dissolves the natural cement holding the sandstone together. Winter ice wedges into cracks and breaks off chunks. Wind carries the loose particles away. The arches are what's left.

Delicate Arch is the most photographed, a freestanding 52-foot sandstone arch standing alone on the edge of a slickrock bowl with the La Sal Mountains behind it. Landscape Arch has the longest span in North America at 306 feet, roughly the length of a football field.

Hike the 3-mile round trip to Delicate Arch at sunrise or sunset when the red rock glows. Walk the Devils Garden trail to see Landscape Arch and continue to Double O Arch if your legs are up for it. Book a timed entry reservation before you go as the park fills up fast in spring and fall.