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Arches National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Location:	Utah, USA
Nearest city:	Moab, Utah
Coordinates:	38°41′0″N, 109°34′0″W
Area:	76,358.98 acres   (76,193.01 federal) 309.01 km²
Established:	April 12, 1929, as a National Monument
Total Visitation:	781,670 (in 2005)
Governing body:	National Park Service

Arches National Park preserves over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations.

The park is located near Moab, Utah, and is 119 square miles (309 km²) in size. Its highest elevation is 5,653 feet (1,723 m) at Elephant Butte and its lowest elevation is 4,085 feet (1,245 m) at the visitor center. Since 1970, 42 arches have toppled because of erosion. Arches National Park also receives 10 inches (250 mm) of rain a year on average.

The area, administered by the National Park Service, was originally designated as a national monument on April 12, 1929. It was redesignated a national park on November 12, 1971. More than 730,000 people visited it in 2004.

Contents 1 Features 2 Geology 3 History 4 Recreational activities 5 Publicity 6 Reference 7 External links

Among the notable features of the park are:

• Delicate Arch — a lone-standing arch which has become a symbol of Utah
• Balanced Rock — a large balancing rock, the size of three scholbusses
• Double Arch — two arches, one on top of the other
• Landscape Arch — a very thin, very long arch over 300 feet (100 m); the largest in the park
• Fiery Furnace — an area of maze-like narrow passages and tall rock columns (see biblical reference Fiery Furnace)
• Devil's Garden — with many arches and columns scattered along a ridge
• Dark Angel — a free-standing column of dark stone at the end of the Devil's Garden trail
• Courthouse Towers — a collection of tall stone columns
• Petrified dunes — petrified remnants of sand dunes blown from the ancient lakes that covered the area

The national park lies atop an underground salt bed, which is the main cause of the formation of the arches and spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins, and eroded monoliths in the area. Thousands of feet thick in places, this salt bed was deposited over the Colorado Plateau some 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with residue from floods and winds and the oceans that came in intervals. Much of this debris was compressed into rock. At one time this overlying earth may have been one mile thick.

Salt under pressure is unstable, and the salt bed below Arches was no match for the weight of this thick cover of rock. Under such pressure it shifted, buckled, liquefied, and repositioned itself, thrusting the Earth layers upward into domes. Whole sections dropped into cavities. In places they turned almost on edge. Faults occurred. The result of one such 2,500-foot displacement, the Moab Fault, is seen from the visitor center.

As this subsurface movement of salt shaped the Earth, surface erosion stripped away the younger rock layers. Except for isolated remnants, the major formations visible in the park today are the salmon-colored Entrada Sandstone, in which most of the arches form, and the buff-colored Navajo Sandstone. These are visible in layer cake fashion throughout most of the park. Over time water seeped into the superficial cracks, joints, and folds of these layers. Ice formed in the fissures, expanding and putting pressure on surrounding rock, breaking off bits and pieces. Winds later cleaned out the loose particles. A series of free-standing fins remained. Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, the cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out. Many damaged fins collapsed. Others, with the right degree of hardness and balance, survived despite their missing sections. These became the famous arches. This is the geologic story of Arches - probably. The evidence is largely circumstantial.

Humans have occupied the region since the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Fremont people and Ancient Pueblo People lived in the area up until about 700 years ago. Spanish missionaries encountered Ute and Paitue tribes in the area when they first came through in 1775, but the first European-Americans to attempt settlement in the area were the Mormon Elk Mountain Mission in 1855, but then soon abandoned the area. Ranchers, farmers, and prospectors later settled Moab in the neighboring riverine valley in the 1880s. Word of the beauty in the surrounding rock formations spread beyond the settlement as a possible tourist destination.

The Arches area was first brought to the attention of the National Park Service by Frank A. Wadliegh, passenger traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Wadleigh, accompanied by railroad photographer George L. Beam, visited the area in September 1923 at the invitation of Alexander Ringhoffer, a Hungarian-born prospector living in Salt Valley. Ringhoffer had written to the railroad in an effort to interest them in the tourist potential of a scenic area he had discovered the previous year with his two sons and a son-in-law, which he called the "Devil's Garden" (known today as the "Klondike Bluffs"). Wadleigh was impressed by what Ringhoffer showed him, and suggested to Park Service director Stephen T. Mather that the area be made a national monument.

The following year additional support for the monument idea came from Laurence M. Gould, a University of Michigan graduate student studying the geology of the nearby La Sal mountains, who was shown the scenic area by retired local physician Dr. J.W. "Doc" Williams.

A succession of government investigators examined the area, in part due to confusion as to the precise location. In the process the name "Devil's Garden" was transposed to an area on the opposite side of Salt Valley, and Ringhoffer's original discovery was omitted, while another area nearby, known locally as "The Windows", was included. Designation of the area as a national monument was supported by the Park Service from 1926, but was resisted by President Calvin Coolidge's Interior Secretary. Finally in April 1929, shortly after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a presidential proclamation creating Arches National Monument, consisting of two comparatively small, disconnected sections. The purpose of the reservation under the 1906 Antiquities Act was to protect the arches, spires, balanced rocks, and other sandstone formations for their scientific and educational value. The name "Arches" was suggested by Frank Pinkely, superintendent of the Park Service's southwestern national monuments, following a visit to the Windows section in 1925.

In late 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation which enlarged the Arches to protect additional scenic features and permit development of facilities to promote tourism. A small adjustment was made by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 to accommodate a new road alignment.

In early 1969, just before leaving office, President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation substantially enlarging the Arches. Two years later President Richard Nixon signed legislation enacted by Congress which significantly reduced the area of Arches, but changed its status to a National Park.

Climbing of named arches within the park has long been banned by park regulations. However, following a successful free climb of Delicate Arch by Dean Potter on May 6, 2006, the wording of the regulations was deemed unenforceable by the park attorney. In response, on May 9, 2006, the park revised its regulations as follows:

"All rock climbing or similar activities on any arch or natural bridge named on the United States Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographical maps covering Arches National Park are prohibited."^[1]

Climbing of other features in the park is allowed, but regulated. The revised regulations also prohibit slacklining parkwide. Approved recreational activities include auto touring, backpacking, biking, camping, and hiking, some of which require permits. There are also guided commercial tours and ranger programs.

American writer Edward Abbey was a park ranger at Arches National Monument where he kept journals that became his book Desert Solitaire. The success of this book, as well as the rise in adventure-based recreation, has drawn many hikers, mountain-bikers, and off-road enthusiasts to the area, but activities are limited within park boundaries: camping, foot hiking (along designated trails), and driving only along marked roads.

The opening scenes of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were filmed at the park.

• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

1. ^ Lisa J. Church, Salt Lake Tribune. Park tweaks rules after Delicate Arch climb. Retrieved on May 10, 2006.

• Arches National Park Official site
• Arches National Park travel guide from Wikitravel
• Arches National Park Arch locator map
• Arches National Park guide in french
• (French) Arches National Park Guide de visite du parc étapes par étapes, attractions par attractions avec plein de photos, cartes, indications pour s'y rendre et distances, conseils pour s'organiser sur place, liens...

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List by: date established, state

v • d • e Parks of Utah
National Parks	Arches National Park • Bryce Canyon National Park • Canyonlands National Park • Capitol Reef National Park • Zion National Park
National Monuments	Cedar Breaks National Monument • Dinosaur National Monument • Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument • Hovenweep National Monument • Natural Bridges National Monument • Rainbow Bridge National Monument • Timpanogos Cave National Monument
State Parks Northern Region	Antelope Island State Park • Bear Lake • Camp Floyd State Park • Deer Creek State Park • East Canyon State Park • Great Salt Lake State Park • Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail • Jordanelle State Park • Hyrum Lake State Park • Red Fleet State Park • Rockport State Park • Starvation State Park • Steinaker State Park • Utah Lake • Wasatch Mountain • Willard Bay State Park
State Parks Central Region	Fremont Indian State Park • Goblin Valley State Park • Green River State Park • Huntington State Park • Millsite State Park • Palisade State Park • Scofield State Park • Territorial Statehouse • Yuba Lake State Park
State Parks Southern Region	Anasazi Indian State Park • Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park • Dead Horse Point State Park • Edge Of the Cedars State Park • Escalante State Park • Goosenecks State Park • Gunlock State Park  • Iron Mission State Park • Kodachrome Basin State Park • Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument • Otter Creek State Park • Piute State Park • Quail Creek State Park • Sand Hollow State Park • Snow Canyon State Park
Municipal parks	Ft. Buenaventura • Lost Creek Reservoir • Jordan River Parkway • Minersville Reservoir • Veterans Memorial Park • This Is The Place Heritage Park