That the landscape of Arches exists for us to see is a stroke of luck. The eroded sandstone arches that give the park its name are made even more miraculous by their precarious existence. Hundreds of arches have crumbled since the park’s creation. Many are still being formed, and many more will collapse during our lifetimes. Each archway is a fleeting window into time, a petrified moment sculpted by precise geologic conditions.
The majestic Landscape Arch is over 290 feet long, the fifth longest natural arch in the world.
The arches are eroded by wind and water over millions of years from enormous “fins” of stone that were thrust up from the Earth’s crust. The forms take on the appearance of the weathered ruins of a civilization of giants.
The imposing forms of the Courthouse Towers stand like an immense monument near the entrance to the park.
Drawing within Double Arch feels like being inside of a cathedral.
I remember visiting Arches with my family when I was little, and the otherworldly magic of the landscape. Since that time, the 12th largest arch in the park, Wall Arch, collapsed (in 2008), and Landscape Arch suffered significant rockfalls in the 1990s. Arches exists as a miraculous monument to the intersection of time and place.