Arches National Park 2

(9/14 continued)

The most intricate and impressive of the arches is called Double Arch .

To appreciate its truly massive scale, notice how small the people within it look.

Two of the other arches we saw were Pine Tree Arch . . .

. . . and Skyline Arch.

Balanced Rock illustrates the two rock strata that form the park's unusual features. The rock on top is a smooth monolith from the Slickrock member of the Jurassic-age Entrada formation, which is made up of uniform grains of sand dune origin and is rather resistant to erosion. The pedestal is a silty sandstone from the Dewey Bridge member of the same Entrada formation, whose beds, deposited in tidal flats, have wavy surfaces and variable thicknesses and grain sizes, and are more easily eroded. The same strata are seen in the pillar to the right of Balanced Rock and can also be seen in some of the other photos.