Arches National Park

A high desert park of 76,680 acres on the Colorado Plateau in eastern Utah, four miles north of Moab and adjacent to the Colorado River. It contains more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches, among them the well-known Delicate Arch, which together make the highest density of natural arches in the world. The cause lies underground: an evaporite layer, or salt bed, beneath the park, which produced the arches along with the spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins and eroded monoliths around them. Elevations run from 4,085 feet at the visitor center to 5,653 feet at Elephant Butte, on an average of less than ten inches of rain a year.