The Geologic Story of Arches National Park: Geological Survey Bulletin 1393 — John Shaqi
The Geologic Story of Arches National Park: Geological Survey Bulletin 1393Lohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Arches National Park: Geological Survey Bulletin 1393
Lohman, Stanley William
Arches National Park (Utah); Geology -- Utah -- Arches National Park -- Guidebooks
The Windows section, one of the most beautiful parts of the park, once
was the only readily accessible part of the former monument and is still
the only collection of arches seen by many visitors who either do not
have or do not take time to travel farther north. All the arches and
erosion forms are on or near a high crest called Elephant Butte (Dane,
1935, p. 126, 127), which separates Salt Valley from the Courthouse
syncline. The ridge also marks the south edge of several minor
anticlines and synclines termed by Dane the “Elephant Butte folds.”
[Illustration: EYE OF THE WHALE, one of several arches in Herdina
Park, just south of jeep trail about 2 miles northwest of Balanced
Rock. Cut in Slick Rock Member. Front opening is 60 feet wide and 27
feet high, but back opening is only 35 feet wide and 11 feet high.
Photograph by Professor Dale J. Stevens, Brigham Young University.
(Fig. 34)]
Guarding the approach to The Windows section is Balanced Rock (stop 9).
As shown in the frontispiece, it is accompanied on the right by another
balanced rock and a third one may be seen in the distance. The original
route to The Windows section, pioneered by Goulding, passed just north
of Balanced Rock. Traces of the old road between here and the Garden of
Eden parking area are still visible but no longer used. To the west,
however, a part of the old road is the starting point of a jeep trail
leading northwestward through Herdina Park to a point near Klondike
Bluffs, where it joins the dirt road in Salt Valley (fig. 1). Visitors
having four-wheel-drive vehicles may wish to drive at least as far as
Eye of The Whale (fig. 34), which is about 2 miles northwest of Balanced
Rock. There are several picnic tables at the beginning of this jeep
trail, but no water.
[Illustration: INTRICATE CROSSBEDS IN NAVAJO SANDSTONE, on north
side of road between Garden of Eden and Cove of Caves. Red crest is
basal part of Dewey Bridge Member. (Fig. 35)]
Just beyond Balanced Rock, a branch paved road turns eastward 2½ miles
to the main parking lots in The Windows section. Between the Garden of
Eden (stop 13) and Cove of Caves are spectacular exposures of the Navajo
Sandstone showing the crossbedding typical of the original dunes (fig.
35). Just east of the crossbedded Navajo Sandstone, shown in figure 35,
we pass Cove Arch and Cove of Caves (stop 10) on the north side of the
road (fig. 36).
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