Sunday, March 10, 2013

Arches National Park

Arches National Park contains the largest concentration of natural stone arches in the world – more than 2500 at last count. By comparison, the Red River Gorge Geological Area in central Kentucky has only a little more than 100 natural sandstone arches, but still has the highest concentration of arches east of the Rocky Mountains.


In addition to a plethora of stone arches, the park has hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins (vertical slabs of rock), balanced rocks and lofty monoliths:


Even if you have a strong preference for the mountains, Arches National Park should be on your bucket list. I would recommend visiting at least one full day, but two days would provide a much better opportunity to soak in everything the park has to offer.



Best Easy Day Hikes Canyonlands and Arches National Parks: this fully updated and revised edition includes trail descriptions and maps of the best short hikes that venture into some of the most scenic sections of Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.









Jeff
RockyMountainHikingTrails.com

2 comments:

Donna Hull said...

Your photos remind me of just how much I enjoy Arches National Park. It's one of my favorites. There are several easy hikes that take you right into the middle of the formations. Photographers will have a field day, especially at sunrise or sunset.

The Smoky Mountain Hiker said...

Donna - great point about being in the park at sunrise and sunset. Unfortunately we only had a few hours, and it was basically in the middle of the day.