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Iconic stone arch collapses in southern Utah park (Breaking News, Bush's Fault)
comcast.net ^ | 8/10/2008 | AP

Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 7:20:14 AM by Robert A. Cook, PE

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah — One of the largest and most photographed arches in Arches National Park has collapsed.

Paul Henderson, the park's chief of interpretation, said Wall Arch collapsed sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.

The arch is along Devils Garden Trail, one of the most popular in the park. For years, the arch has been a favorite stopping point for photographers.

Henderson said the arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion.

"They all let go after a while," he said Friday.

He said it's the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991. No one has reported seeing it fall.

Like others in the park, Wall Arch was formed by entrada sandstone that was whittled down over time into its distinctive and photogenic formation.

The arch, first reported and named in 1948, was more than 33 feet tall and 71 feet across. It ranked 12th in size among the park's estimated 2,000 arches.

Rock has continued to fall from the remaining arms of the arch forcing the closure of a portion of the trail.

Officials from the National Park Service and the Utah Geological Survey visited the site Thursday, noting stress fractures in the remaining formation. The trail won't be opened until the debris is cleared away and it's safe for visitors, Henderson said.

When I was there I asked about some of the formations and they told me just what the story said - that over time many of them would collapse, etc. I'm glad to know that no one was reported hurt by it - but it's too bad that so far there are no photographs of the collapse. Luckily there are so many others - and others will be made, I believe, over time - just probably not in our life-times.

Thanks for sharing the story - another reason I'll kick myself when I don't see everything I want to on some of my trips! Cuz you can't always go back.

glad I took this photo in 2003!!



Here is the Before and after shots of it now

thanks for the pictures,
fascinating and amazing

This is so too bad! I am disappointed, but also in awe of Mother Nature. Every once in awhile there is a significant rock fall in Yosemite Valley. Alway so humbling. Thanks for posting news story and pictures.

What is wonderful about southern Utah is that the landscape is always in transition, with the erosion of the wind and rain and freezing. When I started reading the story, I was afraid it was Delicate Arch that collapsed.

I personally will fall apart if something ever happens to Delicate Arch because I climbed that killer hike up slick rocks and around the side of some cliffs and took no less than an hour straight up to climb to the top to touch it, it represents Utah and Arches National Park. Delicate Arch is the most famous.

That's the way I felt about the "Old Man of the Mt." in NH when it fell. But at least I had seen and enjoyed it many times in my childhood. I haven't been to Arches NP yet. Was right there with Carol, but we skipped it.

WOW, I'm glad I got to see it again on this last trip. There's a lot in this world I'm never going to be able to see and miss, like the Great Wall in China as well as the GTG's in NJ and Texas. Guess I'll have to rely on all of you to make it up to me. carold