Created more than 65 million years ago by freezing temperatures and wind, Arches National Park boasts the world’s greatest expanse of natural sandstone arches. Though the park is relatively small by comparison to other Western parks—73,379 acres—what it lacks in size, Arches makes up for in sheer splendor. Located in the heart of the Colorado Plateau, at elevations of 4,000 to 5,400 feet, the park offers visitors an abundance of delicate rock formations.

The horizontal beds of sedimentary rocks date back to 175 million years ago. Once part of a great body of ocean that filled the Paradox Basin, the water began to evaporate during the Pennsylvanian Period, leaving the salt and gypsum to crystallize in the searing heat. More than 1,500 arches were shaped by shifting salt deposits, cracking and thrusting the sandstone into vertical slabs which eroded into a series of domes and monoliths.

Erosion continues to reshape and strip away multiple layers of rock, while providing habitat for high desert vegetation and wildlife. Arches National Park averages just under 9 inches of rain per year, yet its flora flourishes in these conditions.

Tracing the rolling pattern of rocks is a variety of plant growth. Along the higher plateau, pinyon pine and ghostly junipers form sparse groves, while prickly pear, blackbrush, and scrub take hold between rocky ridges and crevices. Columbine, monkey flower, and native cottonwood grow along the river’s edge. In the park’s Salt Valley, thickets of Indian rice grass, galleta, and snakeweed dominate.

Kangaroo rats, jackrabbits, and squirrels dart across the rocks, foraging for food. At dusk, an occasional coyote can be spotted looking for prey. But it is the golden eagle, gracefully circling a horizon of pale blue sky, which gives the visitor a sense of Arches National Park’s unsullied remoteness.

Though the Mormons settled at nearby Moab in 1852, Arches was left largely unexplored. Eight hundred years earlier, the Fremont and Anasazi tribes farmed the land, their legacy a series of petroglyphs south of the park. By the time of the Mormons’ arrival, Ute Native Americans inhabited the region.

The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad contributed to the new wave of communities being built around the mines of southwestern Utah. Renewed interest in Moab came after the relocation of the Ute tribe to a government reservation. In 1888, Civil War veteran John Wesley Wolfe built the first cabin in the sun-ravaged Salt Valley.

Prospector Alexander Ringhoffer first brought the Arches region to national attention in 1923, with the realization that there was a fortune to be made from tourists. Arches became a national monument in 1929 and a national park in 1971. The individual arches were named in the 1930s by journalist Frank Beckwith, who led a year-long expedition through the newly created monument.

Until 50 years ago, the area remained largely unfamiliar to tourists—but then Moab’s mining fortunes placed it on the map. Former park ranger and writer Edward Abbey wrote evocatively of the Arches National Park’s isolation, and the importance of preserving it, in the fascinating and definitive book on the region, Desert Solitaire.

Abbey’s philosophy of safeguarding the park from “motorized tourists” has largely been carried on by the National Park Service today. The visitor center provides strict guidelines for Arches’ many foot trails and driving treks, and for camping.

The park entrance, just 5 miles from Moab by Hwy 191, introduces the visitor to a prehistoric world. The dramatic panorama is broken only by a ribbon of asphalt—a road that carries more than 500,000 tourists each year.

There are seven major trails through Arches National Park that provide superb vantage points, taking in the popular sites of Courthouse Towers, Balance Rock near the Windows, Delicate Arch, and Devil’s Garden. Visitors can begin a 20-mile drive through the park or use the visitor center as the starting point for the first of several hiking trails.

The main road spirals around steep rock along the Moab Fault for 18 miles, before finishing its course at Devil’s Garden at the northeastern tip of the park. Forsake the excellent road, if possible, to follow in the footsteps of Edward Abbey, and explore the park by foot.

The Park Avenue Trail follows an exposed escarpment with a skyline of fiery red and brown fins. Wedged in between jagged rocks are a sprinkling of junipers and desert shrubs. Just below the trail, the Navajo Sandstone forms a secondary bed on the canyon floor, creating a natural esplanade. At the fringe of the trailhead is Courthouse Towers, where a lofty buttress known as the Organ thrusts vertically from a red sandstone bed.

Seven miles north, in the heart of the park, lies the Window District and a sideline trail leading to another cluster of arches. Acting as road marker to the trail is the area’s most precarious rock formation, Balanced Rock, a 50-foot boulder that sits gingerly atop a narrow slab of stone. Double Arch Trail twists and winds through a series of narrow limestone pillars or “hoodoos,” and buttes to reach Double Arch, offering a superb vista of petrified dunes and the La Sal Mountains, which soar up to 12,000 feet in the distance. Double Arch was used as a location backdrop in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Although the arch is located at the highest point within the park, its trail is not especially difficult.

Near Cove Arch, the fault lines of the Entrada and Navajo Sandstone have created a bedrock of fins, known as the Garden of Eden. Over time, this area will give way to further erosion, sculpting the fins into a framework of arches.

Back on the main road, visitors can take in Panorama Point before descending into the region known as Salt Valley. Sitting at the fork of the Delicate Arch Trail is the Wolfe Ranch, constructed by pioneer John Wesley Wolfe.

At the end of the trail is Delicate Arch, one of Arches National Park’s most photographed sites. Spanning 45 feet and standing 65 feet high on a corner ledge, this dainty rock formation frames the canyon in an amphitheater of brilliant hues and sound. Looking beyond to the La Sal Mountains, a distant raven squawk can echo for miles.

From the Salt Valley Overlook, the road leads on to the Fiery Furnace Viewpoint, a trail that takes in intricate passageways through narrow escarpments so tight that visitors’ bodies brush the walls as they pass.

Heading north, a series of trails connects visitors to the Devil’s Garden region and more than 60 of the park’s natural arches. A 11⁄2-mile stroll takes you to the Sand Dune, Broken, and Tapestry Arches before the loop road winds around a collection that includes Double O, Navajo, and Landscape Arches. Perched near the top of a scrubby bluff, Landscape Arch, spanning 90 feet and 291 feet high, is the park’s widest arch.

To the northwest, along a 9-mile dirt road, is Klondike Bluffs and the least-used Tower Arch Trail. This section of the park attracts the hardier hiker and the avid 4WD-vehicle adventurer, with its series of dunes and abrupt inclines. Arches National Park’s only campground is located in Devil’s Garden. Open year-round, it has only 53 sites available, including trailers. Backpackers can camp for free with a permit, but campsites must be a minimum of 11⁄2 miles from the trails and roads. Permits are available at the

Arches Visitor Center year-round and cover a seven-day period. Entry fees are small for hikers and slightly higher for vehicles. Escorted ranger tours are available at Fiery Furnace for a small fee. Visitors should come prepared for the excessive heat in high summer.