Arches National Park

Park information

• Date established: April 12, 1929, as a national monument; November 12, 1971, as a national park
• Location: Grand County, Utah
• Area: 76,679 acres

Overview

Arches National Park in Utah is made up of more than two thousand natural sandstone arches, making it the largest concentration of such formations in the world. In addition to the sandstone arches, the 76,679 acre national park contains a variety of other geological formations along with panoramic vistas and a number of species of plants and wildlife. The park features numerous hiking trails, from easy, family-friendly routes that take less than an hour to complete, to more intermediate routes that can take closer to a half day or longer.

The national park has grown in popularity and is a destination for hikers and campers alike. Arches National Park first exceeded one million annual visitors in 2010, with 1,014,405 people visiting the park. That number has continued to grow since then, with more than 1.5 million visitors going through the park in 2016. That growth in popularity has prompted the National Park Service, which oversees the park, to propose a traffic congestion management plan to address the high volumes of vehicle traffic and parking problems the park experiences each year, especially during its busiest times. The proposed plan, which was first introduced in 2017, would require reservations during the park’s busy seasons and peak visitation hours. According to the National Park Service, the proposal would ensure visitors could get into the park and free up more parking space. Reservations were required in 2025.

History

The sandstone arches and other natural rock formations that make up Arches National Park have been around for millions of years, and locals in the area have long admired their beauty. Three men are credited as founders of the park, as they helped spread the word about the scenic landscape. Loren “Bish” Taylor took over the town newspaper in Moab, Utah, in 1911. He often wrote editorials and other articles describing the beauty of the land and about his time exploring the sandstone arches just north of Moab. Another man who helped bring awareness to the land was John “Doc” Williams, the first doctor in the town of Moab. As he traveled throughout Moab and nearby towns, he would often stop and let his horse rest at a scenic vista now known as Doc Williams Point to look over the scenic landscape.

As word of the park’s natural beauty spread, efforts were launched to gain support for designating the land as a national park. A prospector named Alexander Ringhoffer wrote to the Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1923 in an effort to grow support for the cause. He took executives from the railroad on hikes throughout the rock formations. The executives were impressed by what they saw and believed the land would create opportunities for them to get more customers for their railroad. They joined the effort to designate the land as a national park and eventually convinced the government to send research teams to survey the land. Their plan worked, and on April 12, 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed presidential proclamation No. 1875, which established Arches National Monument. The proclamation reserved 1,920 acres in the Windows area and 2,600 in Devils Garden for the monument. Boundaries of the park were expanded over time, and in 1971, its status was changed from a national monument to a national park.

Geology and Ecology

Arches National Park contains more than two thousand naturally formed sandstone arches and other geological features. The arches throughout the park were formed over millions of years through the process of erosion. The landscape is made up of two different rock layers that, along with the right amount of rainfall each year, allowed the arches to form over time. The sandstone is made of fine grains of sand that were packed together over time. The Entrada sandstone layer was once a large desert, but over time, the fine sand was packed together to form a porous rock. Just below the Entrada layer is the Carmel layer, which consists of a mix of sand and clay. The clay particles are smaller than the sand, allowing them to fill gaps between the grains of sand, which makes this layer denser and less porous than the Entrada layer. The park receives an average of 8 to 10 inches of rainfall each year, which is just enough for erosion to occur and the arches to form. As the rain soaks through the porous Entrada layer, it then sits on top of the denser Carmel layer, slowly eroding the rock from the inside out. Water trapped between the rock layers freezes in the winter and pushes the rock apart.

There are several different types of arches that make up the rock formations within Arches National Park. They include cliff wall arches, which appear on or next to rock walls or cliffs; freestanding arches, which stand independent of other rock walls or structures; pothole arches, which form with a small depression on top of the rock and merge with an alcove on the rock face; and natural bridges, which form above streams or stream channels.

More than one million people visit Arches National Park each year to take in the scenic vistas and explore the rocky terrain. Some of the more popular spots for these tourists, hikers, and campers include Park Avenue and Courthouse Towers, Balanced Rock, the Windows Section, Delicate Arch and Wolfe Ranch, and Devils Garden. In addition to the more than two thousand arches and other rock formations, visitors to the park will also see plants and other wildlife. Despite the limited amount of rainfall each year, Arches National Park has a large amount of plant life, including different types of grasses, cacti, and wildflowers, all of which are drought escapers, resistors, or evaders, which means they can thrive in an area with a limited amount of rain. Visitors to the park will also find a number of animals, including birds and lizards, and some small mammals like mule deer, skunks, foxes, coyotes, jackrabbits, and porcupines. What animals will be out and active depends on the time of year, time of day, and the weather, as many of the animals are either nocturnal or hibernate in the winter.

Bibliography

“Arches National Park.” Discover Moab.com, www.discovermoab.com/arches-national-park/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

“Arches National Park.” Visit Utah.com, www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/most-visited-parks/arches/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

O’Conner, John. “The Balancing Act of Arches.” New York Times, 2 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/travel/arches-national-park-edward-abbey-desert-solitaire.html. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

“A Red-Rock Wonderland.” National Park Service, 24 Nov. 2024, www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

“These Spectacular Rock Sculptures Reveal Millenia of History.” National Geographic, 5 Nov. 2009, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/arches-national-park/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

“Windows to the Sky: Arches National Park.” National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/arches-national-park. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.