Emily Chan
As recently as 20 years ago, park visitors often walked on top of arches and hung off them for photos.
One person even climbed the Delicate Arch in Utah, leaving rope grooves in the sandstone. To this day, the imprints can still be seen. The incident led park officials to emphasize that climbing arches was prohibited in 2006.
Canyonlands National Park, which is located northeast of Glen Canyon in Utah, bans visitors from standing or climbing on the arches.
Furthermore, air restrictions were established in the area surrounding one of the world’s largest natural bridges, Rainbow Bridge National Monument in the southern part of the state, after studies showed that helicopters could speed up damage to the arch.
“Some people have the sense that rock is strong and humans don’t affect it,” Jeff Moore, a geology and geophysics professor at the University of Utah, said.
“When these kinds of collapses happen, it’s a reminder that arches are really fragile. Subtle changes can make a difference.”
To see a photo of the collapsed arch from the National Park Service, please visit the link here.
*On September 1, a correction was issued on this story to clarify that the featured image does not illustrate the original collapsed arch. We provided a link to a press release from the National Park Service showing the collapsed arch.*
