A short 5 mile drive from our campsite was Arches National Park. Another scenic wonder and geology lesson. When the Colorado Plateau (which encompasses Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona) was forced upward by the collision between the Pacific plate and the North American Plate an inland sea that had dried and filled many millions of times was exposed to the dry arid landscape and monsoon rainfalls. Within this plateau was a huge salt mound from the many times the seas had dried up. This salt mound eventually dissolved from the rain water and exposed the hidden cracks in the sandstone that were created when the plateau was forced upward. As more and more rain fell it eroded the sandstone and continues to this day create more sand sculptures. Arches National Park contains over 2000 naturally formed arches. All of which will some day collapse. New arches are being formed and subtle changes in the surface occurs with every significant rainfall.
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| Frozen Sand Dunes |
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| Balanced Rock |
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| Elephant Rocks |
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| Arches in the making |
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| Cracks in the sandstone eroded by the rainfall |
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