The Arches National Park is located in Utah and offers around 780,000 visitors annually on 310 km² a lot of nature and many interesting sights.
Arches National Park was founded on April 12, 1929 and is located on the Colorado River. But how did it all start?
The history of the Arches National Park The area of today’s Arches National Park was settled by people
as early as the Ice Age. Ten thousand year old traces of human life were found. Agriculture too was operated here earlier. But not until much later. Remnants of fields around 2000 years old were also found, on which people at that time were likely to have mainly grown beans, maize or pumpkins. Today’s Arches National Park is likely to have served as a pure cultivation area, as there is no trace of houses or huts from that time. The village was probably a little further away. Because rock carvings about such a village still exist today. It is also assumed that the population descends from the Pueblo builders. Today these houses still stand in Mesa Verde and can also be visited. The successors of the pueblo builders are the Hopi Indians, some of whom still inhabit pueblos today.
It was not until much later that whites settled in this area. Spaniards took over the area of today’s Arches National Park. One of the new settlers was Denis Julien. You know that very well, because he always immortalized himself on stones by scratching his name and the date on which he was hunting in stones. The oldest date for Denis Julien is June 9th, 1844.
The editor Loren “Bish” Taylor helped the Arches National Park to its first fame. Since 1911 Taylor reported frequently in his newspaper about the beautiful area and often traveled to the park with the doctor John “Doc” William. The place where they liked to stay is still called Doc Williams Point today.
It was decided to use the area for tourism and the construction of the railway was planned. However, in order to protect the area, today’s Arches National Park was declared a protected area in 1929. Since then, the area has been expanded again and again to this day.
Sights
The world’s largest occurrence of natural stone arches, which have been formed from boulders over time, can be found in Arches National Park. Hence the name of the park, because Arches means arches in German. There are over 2000 Arches here!
There is also a farm here, the wolf farm, which was only inhabited for 10 years. The high temperatures and low rainfall in the area made it almost impossible for farmers to survive.
The Babel Tower is very well known. It was used as a background for a Marlboro poster. In general, the Arches National Park served as the backdrop for some films, such as Indiana Jones or Hulk.
Climate and animals in the Arches National Park
Due to the desert-like climate, there are up to 40 degrees in summer, different groups of animals and plants have settled here. Among other things, you will find amphibians and reptiles here, which are particularly comfortable in this area.
You can also observe particularly beautiful and colorful species of birds here.
In winter, temperatures usually drop to as low as 10 degrees. This can also be clearly seen in the precipitation. It rarely rains here. Usually the mean value is less than 200 mm.
Most animals, however, are only active after dusk. So during the day you can hardly observe the many species that live here.
The mammals that have settled in Arches National Park include kangaroo rats, skunks, foxes and bats. The mule deer or coyotes can also be found here.
In addition to grasses and cacti, you will also find real pinyon juniper forests in the Arches National Park.