38°41′00″n 109°34′00″w

Official NPS stats show that, from 2009 to 2013, Arches NP has had about 1 million visitors. This means an AVERAGE daily visitation of about 2850, although the numbers can vary widely depending on the month. No surprise -- visitation is highest in the summer and lowest in January and February.

Roughly 560,000 people a year visit Mesa Verde National Park each year. You can find this information on the park's website.

The Arches area was first brought to the attention of the National Park Service by Frank A. Wadleigh, passenger traffic manager of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Wadleigh, accompanied by railroad photographer George L. Beam, visited the area in September 1923 at the invitation of Alexander Ringhoffer, a Hungarian-born prospector living in Salt Valley. Ringhoffer had written to the railroad in an effort to interest them in the tourist potential of a scenic area he had discovered the previous year with his two sons and a son-in-law, which he called the "Devil's Garden" (known today as the "Klondike Bluffs"). Wadleigh was impressed by what Ringhoffer showed him, and suggested to Park Service director Stephen T. Mather that the area be made a national monument.

The arches were formed by erosion. There was formerly a rock whose mineral makeup was more susceptible to weathering below the rock that we see as the arch today. Since the lower rock weathered more easily, it eroded away before the rock above it, which continues to largely withstand weathering to this day because of its strong chemical composition.

Utah

It is a new species that has not yet been named.

Although Arches may appear harsh and unchanging, the desert ecosystem is continually evolving. Weather, climatic shifts and geologic processes continue to shape this environment as they have for millennia.

More recently, human-caused factors such as air, noise and water pollution, as well as introduced species, have had a much greater impact on natural resources world-wide.

The undeveloped landscape of Arches provides an ideal place to study how various environmental factors affect desert ecosystems, and predict what changes might be expected in the future.

It is 581 miles according to Google Maps.

arches originated in rome

The amount of sunlight is unknown, but it gets up to 80 degrees F in July.

some of them

550 miles, or 8 hours by car.

IT