Two months ago I camped at Canyonlands National Park with my two youngest offspring (I have three). We hiked over 20 miles in the desert heat of Arches National Park and saw most of the really great arches there. That was the best time I’ve ever had at my favorite place on Earth, Arches. One arch we visited was Wall Arch, the 12th biggest arch in Arches at 71 feet wide by 33 feet high.
This week something historic happened which may not happen for tens of thousands of years or more: Wall Arch collapsed.
Wall Arch before and after the collapse
I’m very sad about the collapse yet excited to have been around during a major geologic event in Arches’ history.
Here is a pic of the kids two months ago under Wall arch. I’m glad we weren’t more of a part of history than this.
Got out just in time!?
When you consider how small of an amount of time two months is in geologic time, we barely escaped the Wall Arch collapse with our lives.
From that NPS article: “All arches are but temporary features and all will eventually succumb to the forces of gravity and erosion.”
I guess those two evil forces gravity, and erosion, are both arch enemies….
Gravity and especially erosion are forces which created the arch in the first place.
dang – I thought that ARCH ENEMIES pun would be ROCK SOLID 🙂