Arches National Park

Established: 1929

Arches National Park lies at altitudes between 3,900ft/1,200m and 5,600ft/1,700m in the desert-like southeastern part of Utah, through which flows the Colorado River. It is world-famed for its extraordinary rock formations - several hundred sandstone arches, some of them of gigantic size, mushroom-shaped rocks, high sandstone rock faces, pinnacles, battlements, buttresses and ridges - created mainly by the action of wind and weather. The reddish Entrada sandstone laid down some 150 million years ago was subjected to tectonic movements of the earth's crust and thereafter was exposed to severe chemical and physical erosion.

Animals

With luck visitors to the Park may encounter desert hares, deer, coyotes. red foxes and porcupines.

Scenic Drive

The 21mi/38km long Scenic Drive takes visitors round the most impressive features in the National Park (nature reserve). From Moab Canyon it runs to the LaSal Mountains View Point, from which mountains rising to almost 13,000ft/4,000m can be seen in the distance.