Arches National Park

A quick summary – what a picture-taking mecca.  I knew almost nothing of this Park.  At one point in our trip planning, I asked, “what are we going to do there?”  Gary had visited there 38 years ago and assured me it would be well worth the trip.  It was!  The picture below right is of Delicate Arch, featured on the license plate of the State of Utah.

Arches reminded me a little bit of Garden of the Gods back in Colorado Springs, but on a super massive scale.  In the case of Garden of the Gods, the eruption of the Rocky Mountains has caused nearby rock lying horizontally under the ground to thrust up vertically.  In the case of Arches, a huge ancient salt bed left behind from an inland sea provided the base.  Subsequently layer upon layer of sediment had turned to soft rock (sandstone)  on top of the salt bed.  And then through erosions of various manners and upward thrusts from the shifting salt were created these amazing formations.   Below left are The Three Gossips and at the right is Balanced Rock.

And then there are the Petrified Dunes and the Ham Rock

The Arches erode from rock formations that are known as “fins”.  As the fins formed from the various layers of sediments, sometimes it is the bottom layer that has eroded away leaving the top layer of harder rock in place, creating the arches.

We are way behind in cleaning up and posting our photo albums, but for Arches we had to make an exception and get this album posted. Just click on the following link:  https://picasaweb.google.com/116107386675555024952/Arches