

By about 2,000 years ago, they began to settle and cultivate crops such as squash, beans, and maize. The hunter-gatherers of 10,000 years ago came here to find the forms of quartz that were excellent for making stone tools and weapons. Wildlife includes bobcats and foxes, mountain lions and owls, coyotes and mule deer, jackrabbits, eagles, hawks, snakes, and lizards.Īlong with the geological history, the region around Arches has cultural significance as well. The plant and animal species here have adapted to this harsh environment, and many of them are found only in this area. The temperatures can fluctuate 50 degrees in a single 24-hour period. It is a landscape of extremes, with very hot summers, very cold winters, and very little rainfall. This is high desert country, with altitudes around Arches ranging from more than 4,000 feet to nearly a mile above sea level.

#LANDSCAPE ARCH UTAH COLLAPSE LICENSE#
Delicate Arch is the most famous-it appears on the Utah state license plate and on a postage stamp commemorating Utah's statehood, and it was included on the torch run to open the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The rock formations in Arches, such as Landscape Arch and Delicate Arch (pictured above), have become iconic symbols of the Southwest. Wind, rain, erosion, and the porous nature of the sandstone have all combined to sculpt a labyrinth of fanciful arches, hoodoos, balanced rocks, canyons, and fins in beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown. The extraordinary formations of Arches National Park, which include the greatest density of natural arches in the world, have been shaped by the forces of nature. Erosion, the same process that formed the arch, was the likely cause of its collapse-combined with gravity, of course.

Some animals were relocated here from Canyonlands National Park in the 1980s, and there are now about 75 of them living in Arches.
