Arches National Park Travel Guide

Introduction

233 miles SE of Salt Lake City

Natural stone arches and fantastic rock formations are the defining features of this park, and they exist in remarkable numbers and variety. Just as soon as you've seen the most beautiful, most colorful, most gigantic stone arch you can imagine, walk around the next bend and there's another -- bigger, better, and more brilliant than the last. It would take forever to see them all, with more than 2,000 officially listed and more being discovered or "born" every day.

Some people think of arches as bridges, but to geologists there's a big difference. Bridges are formed when a river slowly bores through solid rock. The often bizarre and beautiful contours of arches result from the erosive force of rain and snow, which freezes and thaws, dissolving the "glue" that holds the sand grains together and chipping away at the stone, until gravity finally pulls a chunk off.

Although arches usually grow slowly -- very slowly -- something dramatic happens...