Landscape Arch — natural arch
Thomas Wolf , www.foto-tw.de · CC BY-SA 3.0

Landscape Arch

  • Elevation5,308 m
  • 1 min read
  • 38.791° N 109.607° W

Interesting facts

  • On 5 June 1995 visitors heard a boom like a dynamite blast as a slab about 13 metres long broke from the arch's thinnest section.
  • Two more smaller rockfalls followed the 1995 collapse within the same month, on 13 and 21 June.
  • The 1991 rockfall dropped a slab more than 18 metres long and over a metre thick from the underside of the span.
  • A 2004 survey fixed the span at 290.1 feet, with an uncertainty of less than a foot either way.
  • It is the longest of the more than 2,000 catalogued arches in Arches National Park.
  • In August 2008 nearby Wall Arch, on the same Devils Garden Trail, collapsed overnight, the park's first major arch failure since Landscape Arch shed rock in 1991.

Why it is worth it

Landscape Arch is a ribbon of sandstone so thin that it seems impossible it is still standing. It spans the air in the Devils Garden area at the northern end of Arches National Park, and it is one of the longest natural arches on Earth: a 2004 survey measured the opening at about 88 metres, with the arch rising some 24 metres above the ground. The Natural Arch and Bridge Society ranks it fifth in the world, behind four arches in China, and just ahead of Kolob Arch in Zion. The National Park Service gives its span as 306 feet — about 93 metres — which shows how hard such a slender form is to measure.

What makes it extraordinary is proportion. The span is a long, shallow curve of rock so slender for its length that it reads almost as a line drawn against the sky, set among the rock formations of Devils Garden. The arch was named by Frank Beckwith, who led a scientific expedition into what was then Arches National Monument in the winter of 1933–34.

It is also a lesson in how arches end. Large slabs broke away in 1991 and again in 1995, and the trail that once passed beneath it was closed after those rockfalls. You now look at it from a viewpoint at the end of a short spur, knowing that you are watching a landform in the late stage of its life.

Getting there

The trail to Landscape Arch starts at the Devils Garden trailhead, at the end of the park road about 18 miles (29 km) beyond the visitor centre. The easy walk to the arch and back is about 1.9 miles (3.1 km) on a mostly flat, hard-packed path. The park entrance is 5 miles (8 km) north of Moab, Utah. The nearest airport is Canyonlands Field (CNY), about 11 miles from the park entrance; Grand Junction Regional (GJT) in Colorado, about 109 miles away, has more flights.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Utah 16The Most Beautiful Places in the United States 228The Most Beautiful Natural Arches in the United States 5The Most Remarkable Rock Formations in the United States 18The Most Beautiful Natural Arches 27The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders in the United States 68The Most Remarkable Rock Formations 107The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders 580

From the encyclopaedia

Landscape Arch is a natural arch in Arches National Park, Utah, United States. It is among the longest natural rock arches in the world.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

38.79056, -109.60722per Wikidata