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The Arches National Park, Utah
Road to National Park
When the photographers began coming in the early 1920s, it did not take long before before the area was up for designation as a national monument.
Then, shortly after the presidential inauguration of Herbert Hoover, he signed a proclamation creating Arches National Monument.
However, national park status did not come upon this jewel in the desert until 1971, when Richard Nixon signed the congressional legislation.
Arches National Park Information:
The national park lies above an underground evaporite layer or salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area. This salt bed is thousands of feet thick in places, and was deposited in the Paradox Basin of the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago (mya) when a sea covered the region. However eventually, over numerous millennia, the sea evaporated and formed a salt bed of sandstone.
After the sea was gone, and during the next millions of years, the salt bed was covered with debris eroded from the Uncompahgre Uplift not far to the northeast. During the
Early Jurassic, about 200 mya, desert conditions prevailed in the region and the vast Navajo Sandstone was deposited. An additional sequence of stream-laid and windblown sediments, the Entrada Sandstone (about 140 mya), was deposited on top of the Navajo.
Finally, over 5,000 feet of younger sediments were deposited, hovever these layers have been mostly all eroded away. Remnants of the cover exist in the area including exposures of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The arches of the area were developed primarily during the Entrada formation.
Description:
Arches NP Visitors Center (38.616254, -109.620084)
Delicate Arch Trailhead (38.735680, -109.520451)
Delicate Arch Viewpoint Trailhead (38.734106, -109.501105)
Devils Garden Trailhead (38.782978, -109.595155)
Ute Indian Petroglyph (38.737457, -109.518645)
Courthouse Wash Petroglyph (38.607150, -109.581217)
Moab Museum (38.573213, -109.548356)
Location:
The Arches National Park is located on US 181, 1.8 miles north of the Colorado river and just 4.5 mile from Moab, Utah where US 181 intersects Center Street.
Coordinates:
38.610974, -109.608116
Elevation:
4042 feet
Geographical Region:
Basin and Range
Ecoregion:
Colorado Plateau Ecoregion
The Ancients
Second Migration
(The Uto-Aztecan Cultures)
Both the Anasazi and Fremont of the
desert wayfarer cultures lived in this area up until about 700 years ago. Later, during the late 1700s, the Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paiute, who apparently descended from these first wayfarers.
By the late 1870s, an influx of farmers, prospectors and ranchers came to the riparian valley which was the
Colorado River and soon, Moab was to rise out of the desert sands.
The Earth
National Parks and Monuments:
The Hayduke Trail, an 812 mile backpacking route begins in Arches National Park, moves through the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, then into Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Grand Canyon National Park and finally ending in Zion National Park.
The Modern Man
NP Devils Garden Campground
(38.780383, -109.591104)
$25 per night
BLM Goose Island Campground
(38.609679, -109.557765)
BLM Grindstaff Campground
(38.613609, -109.530910)
BLM Camping Fee: $20 per night, $10 per night with Senior Pass
The Steps
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