arches in the four corners

Arches National Park has over 2,000 natural stone arches, but there are other arches elsewhere in Utah.

I’ve already shown you some on various hikes:

We found other arches at various viewpoints where a long hike wasn’t required.

Sand Dune Arch is well-concealed between two sandstone fins.

Broken Arch Trail winds through open blackbrush and grassland flats.  The arch isn’t really broken, but a crack through the top gives it that appearance.

We found Mesa Arch at Canyonlands National Park.

Wilson Arch, which sits right along the road from Moab to Bluff, Utah, was named after Joe Wilson, a local pioneer who had a cabin nearby in Dry Valley.  This formation is known as Entrada Sandstone.  Over time, the superficial cracks, joints, and folds of these layers were saturated with water.  Ice formed in the fissures, melted under extreme desert heat, and winds cleaned out the loose particles.  A series of free-standing fins remained.  Wind and water attacked these fins until, in some, the cementing material gave way and chunks of rock tumbled out.  Many damaged fins collapsed.  Others, with the right edge of hardness survived despite their missing middles like Wilson Arch.

While arches form from the inside out, some rock formations that look like arches are actually considered bridges. Owachomo Bridge at Natural Bridges National Monument is a bridge that was carved from the outside, by water. Because Owachomo no longer straddles all the streams which carved it, it appears to be an arch.  Flowing water is required to carve a hole through a rock wall to form a bridge, while an arch is freestanding and does not span a water course.

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“PHOTOGRAPHY” INVITATION:  I invite you to create a photography intention and then create a blog post for a place you have visited. Alternately, you can post a thematic post about a place, photos of whatever you discovered that set your heart afire. You can also do a thematic post of something you have found throughout all your travels: churches, doors, people reading, people hiking, mountains, patterns, all black & white, whatever!

You probably have your own ideas about this, but in case you’d like some ideas, you can visit my page: photography inspiration.

I challenge you to post no more than 20 photos (fewer is better) and to write less than 350-500 words about any travel-related photography intention you set for yourself.

While I’m in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago from August 31 – October 25, and then in Portugal from October 26 – November 6, I kindly request that if you have a photography post you’d like to share, please simply link it to the appropriate post, this one or my next one as soon as it publishes. I will try my best to read your posts while I’m on my journey, but I won’t have a computer or the time or ability to add links to my posts. 

My next scheduled photography post will be on September 20, 2018.

This will be an ongoing invitation. Feel free to jump in at any time.

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community. I promise, you’ll be inspired!  See below in the comments for any additional links.

• Ulli, of Banactee, photographed abandoned places, and mused about the poetry of such places.
  • Abandoned Dreamings

Thanks to all of you who wrote photography posts following intentions you set for yourself. 🙂