Arches National Park south eastern Utah near Moab north of the Colorado River. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world. The park is looked after by the National Park Service, originally named a national monument on April 12, 1929, and was redesignated as a national park on November 12, 1971.
There are more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, and a variety of unique geological resources and formations. The Delicate Arch, known as the symbol on Utah licence plates is in Arches Park.
The Delicate Arch is what first attracted me to the Red Rock country around Moab, as I've noted in previous posts, the whole area is a treasure.
The Fremont people and ancestral Puebloans lived in the area from the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago until about 700 years ago. Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paiute tribes in the area around 1775, the Mormon Elk Mountain Mission in 1855 attempted to settle in the area but soon abandoned the effort. Ranchers, farmers, and prospectors later settled the area around Moab in the 1880s. More recently Arches park has served as a location in the Indiana Jones movies.
I have found the best time to visit is in the spring and fall, summer is unbearably hot. There is some great hiking in the park and opportunities for classic landscape photography. Besides the Delicate Arch the are many other amazing features including Balanced Rock, a large balancing rock, the size of three school buses, Devils Garden, a collection of many arches and columns scattered along a ridge and Petrified Dunes which are petrified remnants of sand dunes blown from the ancient lakes that covered the area in prehistoric times.
I've included a small set of photographs from Arches national Park below, enjoy!
Dean
