Pine Tree Arch Mono
In the Devil's Garden section in the north of Arches National Park, Utah, visitors pass this arch on the Devil's Garden Trail en route to the much more famous Landscape Arch.
At the right time of day, the tree is lit by natural sunlight but as you can see, I was there at the wrong time, hence just a partial silhouette. The angle at which I took the image hides the fact that the dimensions of this arch are about 15m in both height and width.
Arches National Park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 6 km north of Moab, UT. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world with more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches to be found in its 310 sq km.
Two small areas were together designated a national monument in 1929. Over the years this was expanded and shrunk several times and it was not until 1971 that the current National Park was created.
Although the park's terrain may appear rugged and durable, it is extremely fragile. More than a million visitors each year threaten the fragile high desert ecosystem. The problem lies within the soil's crust which is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in the dusty parts of the park. Factors that make Arches National Park sensitive to visitor damage include: semi-arid region, and the scarce, unpredictable rainfall, lack of deep freezing, and lack of plant litter which results in soils that have both a low resistance to, and slow recovery from, compressional forces such as foot traffic.
Pine Tree Arch Mono
In the Devil's Garden section in the north of Arches National Park, Utah, visitors pass this arch on the Devil's Garden Trail en route to the much more famous Landscape Arch.
At the right time of day, the tree is lit by natural sunlight but as you can see, I was there at the wrong time, hence just a partial silhouette. The angle at which I took the image hides the fact that the dimensions of this arch are about 15m in both height and width.
Arches National Park is adjacent to the Colorado River, 6 km north of Moab, UT. The park contains the highest density of natural arches in the world with more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches to be found in its 310 sq km.
Two small areas were together designated a national monument in 1929. Over the years this was expanded and shrunk several times and it was not until 1971 that the current National Park was created.
Although the park's terrain may appear rugged and durable, it is extremely fragile. More than a million visitors each year threaten the fragile high desert ecosystem. The problem lies within the soil's crust which is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens that grow in the dusty parts of the park. Factors that make Arches National Park sensitive to visitor damage include: semi-arid region, and the scarce, unpredictable rainfall, lack of deep freezing, and lack of plant litter which results in soils that have both a low resistance to, and slow recovery from, compressional forces such as foot traffic.