Arches

The words

1. Balanced Rock

   Balanced Rock’s upper boulder remains attached to its pedestal rather than balancing loose on top. Harder Entrada Sandstone rests on softer Dewey Bridge rock, which erodes more quickly beneath it.

   Did you know?

   Balanced Rock’s smaller neighbor, Chip-Off-the-Old-Block, collapsed during the winter of 1975–1976, showing how erosion continues to change the formations.

   Park Service: Balanced Rock’s two layers (opens a new tab)

2. Delicate Arch

   Delicate Arch is a freestanding stone span with an opening 46 feet (14 m) high and 32 feet (9.8 m) wide. It has become a widely recognized symbol of Utah.

   Did you know?

   The name Delicate appeared in a January 1934 article about the Arches National Monument Scientific Expedition, which described the arch’s finely sculpted shape.

   Park Service: Delicate Arch’s shape and name (opens a new tab)

3. Devils Garden

   Devils Garden’s closely spaced sandstone fins follow parallel fractures created when buried salt rose. Rainwater widened those cracks, separating the walls from which the area’s arches later developed.

   Park Service: Devils Garden’s fractured rock (opens a new tab)

4. Double Arch

   Double Arch consists of two giant stone spans joined at one end in the Windows Section. Its taller opening rises 112 feet (34 m) above the ground.

   Park Service: Double Arch’s joined spans (opens a new tab)

5. Edward Abbey

   Edward Abbey used Desert Solitaire to argue against intensive tourist development in canyon country. His nature writing linked close observation of desert life with a defense of solitude and personal freedom.

   Did you know?

   Desert Solitaire appeared in 1968, more than a decade after Abbey’s ranger seasons at Arches.

   Park Service: Abbey’s conservation writing (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Desert Solitaire’s publication (opens a new tab)

6. Entrada

   Entrada Sandstone began as fine-grained sand in shifting desert dunes. Its porous rock admits rainwater, which can dissolve the calcite cement holding the grains together and help openings grow.

   Park Service: From dunes to stone arches (opens a new tab)

7. Fiery Furnace

   Fiery Furnace contains towering reddish sandstone fins and pinnacles separated by narrow slots. The USGS geologic guide compares their upright shapes to flames rising from a fire.

   Lohman: Towers, fins and Park Avenue (opens a new tab)

8. Fins

   Fins are narrow sandstone walls left between widening fractures. At Arches, holes can develop through these walls as water removes loosened grains, turning a solid barrier into a natural arch.

   Park Service: From dunes to stone arches (opens a new tab)

9. La Sal

   The La Sal Mountains, visible beyond Arches, contain igneous rock formed from magma that cooled underground. The Utah Geological Survey describes the intrusion as shallow and mushroom-shaped.

   Park Service: Balanced Rock’s two layers (opens a new tab) · Utah Geological Survey: La Sal intrusion (opens a new tab)

10. Landscape Arch

    Landscape Arch is a long, thin span in Devils Garden. On September 1, 1991, visitors photographed and filmed a rockfall from its underside, recording a sudden stage in its continuing erosion.

    Park Service: Devils Garden’s fractured rock (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Landscape Arch’s 1991 rockfall (opens a new tab)

11. North Window

    North Window is formed from two separate sandstone fins, with a crack running along the arch. A crackmeter installed in November 2015 let researchers track how that gap changes with temperature.

    Park Service: Measuring North Window (opens a new tab)

12. Park Avenue

    Park Avenue is a canyon bordered by tall sandstone fins. Its eastern wall reminded visitors of a row of city buildings, while the canyon cuts through softer rock beneath those walls.

    Lohman: Towers, fins and Park Avenue (opens a new tab)

13. Three Gossips

    The Three Gossips are sculpted from Entrada Sandstone, the same rock unit that holds many of Arches’ openings. Water enters fractures and weakens the mineral cement between sand grains.

    Park Service: Rock layers and erosion (opens a new tab)

14. Tower of Babel

    Tower of Babel is a freestanding mass in the Courthouse Towers group. Like the surrounding towers, it has harder Entrada Sandstone above the softer Dewey Bridge layer, which erodes faster.

    Lohman: Towers, fins and Park Avenue (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Rock layers and erosion (opens a new tab)

15. Wolfe Ranch

    The surviving Wolfe Ranch cabin was built in 1906 after Flora Stanley requested wooden floors and windows. Six family members shared its single room beside Salt Wash.

    Did you know?

    Flora Stanley used a camera and developing kit from her father to make one of the earliest photographs of Delicate Arch.

    Park Service: The Wolfe family’s cabin (opens a new tab)