hr: traveller

Photo Credit: fjarlq

The Arches National Park is located in the Canyon Country of Utah and is home to the world’s biggest concentration of natural sandstone arches. It preserves more than 2000 arches including the Delicate Arch which is one of the most famous, having found lasting recognition by being in the Utah state license plate. The national park is home to the most outstanding geologic formations found in the world from three-foot arches to the Landscape Arch which measures 306 feet.

There are a lot of incredible things to see in the Arches National Park. Park Avenue is a one mile trail by the park entrance that leads to a sandstone canyon with steep walls and a smooth bottom.

Want to see an important Hollywood scene? The Double Arch is a joining of two arches that has been prominent at the start of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, just a walking distance from the North and South Windows and Turret Arch.

You can also marvel at colorful formations of ancient sand dunes that had hardened into stone, giving them the charming name Petrified Dunes.

Join a ranger-led tour of the Fiery Furnace which is one of the most interesting geological areas in the Arches National Park. You might also want to visit the Devil’s Garden Trail which is home to numerous arches including the Landscape Arch, the Double O arch and what used to be the Wall Arch which sadly collapsed very recently.

Be ready to hike, backpack and view the almost 50 mammal species that live in the arches. But remember that these geological treasures are very delicate. Stay on the path so that your prints won’t erode the soils. And please, please take to heart the adage: Leave only your footprints, take only photographs. That tiny pebble you take might be the only thing that holds an arch together.

For more information, check out its Wikitravel article.

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