All things end:
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.

Third Eye Open
In some ways it’s sad, but when one gets over the pure aesthetics of the collapse, it’s a confirmation of the divine in something as simple as rock formations.
Love Life!
I can’t wait to get back out the Red Rocks for some R&R
among the foothills.
jeffreyw
Fallen arches have kept many a warblogger out of the service, but they all do what they can to buck up morale.
Richardson
Just like America under the Bush presidency.
Incertus
Man, I remember seeing that when I hiked in Arches a few years (6,7?) and about 30 pounds ago. That was one of the most incredible vacations I’ve ever taken. I need to get back out there.
Hedley Lamarr
Don’t cry. McCain would have wanted to turn that land into an oil well or a “nucular” waste dump.
ThymeZone
I guess we all take different things away from something like this. Mine would be, don’t stand under one of these fucking arches. They are all formations in the last stages of the deconstruction of rock formations and are all going to fall down.
I live in Arizona which is sort of a New York City of rock formations and spectacular scenes. I have never understood the attraction of these arches. Of all the natural beauty around to look at out here, an arch strikes me as about as interesting as a Burma Shave sign. But hey, that’s just me.
I need a little more than an arch to get me onto the trail with a camera.
Here’s a spot I can reach in two hours by car from where I now sit. Arches? We don’t need no stinking arches.
Walker
Following the same theme, one of the last “witness trees” to the Battle of Gettysburg has died.
Third Eye Open
TZ,
I can’t see pictures of that sorta stuff without feeling sorry for myself for coming back out east to finish school.
Between the lack of readily accessible micro-brews and the abundance of Jersey-ites I’m ready to fly the coop.
myiq2xu
Arch supports help to delay the inevitible.
BombIranForChrist
“Your time is gonna come, too.”
Jesus Christ, dude. Did you have a little melodrama with your cornflakes this morning?
Incertus
Having grown up in south Louisiana, where the closest thing to a mountain is a highway overpass, I think the arches are incredible and amazing. But a cypress swamp? I think of the mosquitos and not much else. Visitors have raved about its beauty to me, and I shake my head.
sidereal
Personally, I thought it was confirmation of gravity.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Personally, I thought it was confirmation of gravity.
That’s Intelligent Falling to you, heathen.
So, how long does it take for the McCain campaign to cut a TV ad telling us that Obama is making rock formations collapse?
Bob Weber
It’s interesting that the press is reporting that Wall Arch is “the first to fall since Landscape Arch in 1991”. Landscape Arch hasn’t fallen! A good chunk fell from the arch, but it’s still standing. A truly amazing sight: just a long, thin ribbon of rock hanging between two escarpments. Much longer than Wall Arch was. Everyone always figured it would be the first one to collapse. BTW, pieces falling off the arches isn’t all that rare. A huge chunk fell out of Skyline Arch a few decades ago.
Liberal Masochist
The area around Moab UT is amazing. I hiked that section of arches 9 years ago on my way to the telluride bluegrass festival. i did a couple of really long hikes in canyonlands NP as well. what a trip!
now i am in houston, which has a lot of amazing stone work, mostly the flat concrete variety…
maxbaer (not the original)
Our family went to see this guy when we were kids. I was kind of sad to he had succumbed to age as well.
w vincentz
TZ,
Thanks for the photo gallery. If they are yours, you are very gifted.
I’m keeping it a secret where my favorite places in the Catskills are so that these special places remain pristine. To know more, one needs to become familiar with the Hudson River artists.
I’ll just say that here in upstate NY, two and a half hours from Manhatten, there is equal beauty to anything in the western states. It needs to be sought, found, and appreciated.
Liz
I was going to mention the Old Man of the Mountain as well. Always sad when something as beautiful as these formations go their inevitable way.
Heshe
Crap, I was in Moab in May and because we could only stay there a day, we decided to go to Canyonlands, which was just spectacular, instead of Arches. In hindsight, maybe we made the wrong choice. This always happens.
Maybe they can cement it back together.
mary jane
this looks like global warming to me. what else could cause this to happen? we better listen to nancy pelosi, who is trying to save the planet, and obama, and inflate our tires so this stuff quits happening!
Johnny Pez
Did anyone record the presence of a coyote chasing a roadrunner near the arch? If so, then I can guess what happened.
Hannah
Bob Weber: I was going to write the same thing re Landscape Arch. I consulted the photo album I put together from a 1995 family trip (we visited all of the National Parks and National Monuments in Utah, an amazing trip) because we hiked that trail and saw Landscape Arch. Our photo shows it to be intact. In fact, a few big chunks of rock had fallen off earlier that summer (1995) as well. That’s just the way it works… erosion and gravity.
The CNN report was wrong. Wow, I’m shocked. :-p
Heshe, Canyonlands is also amazing. Completely different from Arches, yet so close in proximity. The whole Moab area is one of our favorite places.
AnotherBruce
Actually, when I saw that picture, I thought that it was landscape arch.
I remember wall arch though, hiking above it and taking pictures of it looking down. Gotta dig those out of the attic.
And Mary Jane thanks for the same stale boring political tripe that’s been regurgitated in a predictable manner for years. Take a vacation, maybe to Arches. Try standing under an arch for awhile and contemplating the meaning of it all.
Heshe
Well, if there’s a bright side to any of this, at least I was able to see the Old Man of the Mountain when I was a little kid.
daryljhusseinfontaine
I visited Utah back in the 90s, and probably have a non-digital photo of that arch somewhere. Utah landscape is awesome; driving out of the Rockies west of Denver in the mid-morning into the painted vista was nothing short of spectacular.
That trip included Arches, Goblin Valley (a state park south-ish of Green River, very cool, was used in the film Galaxy Quest), Bryce Canyon, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (on a whim), and Monument Valley. Love the southwestern United States.
Also wanted to go to the Grand Canyon North Rim, but a word of advice: do not do this in July, it is the local “monsoon season.” The day was wet, grey, and cold, and never got any better. I have some lovely shots of fog through trees which commemorate that day.
D