Национальный парк Арки является заповедником, где представлены более 2000 арок природного происхождения, образованных песчаником, самой известной из которых является Delicate Arch. Помимо этого, в парке находятся разнообразные горные формации, представляющие большой интерес. В некоторых районах парка, можно увидеть геологические экспонаты, возраст которых составляет миллионы лет. Национальный парк находится на вершине эвапоритового подземного слоя или каменной соли, которая и является основной причиной формирования арок, башенок, пропорциональных утесов и размытых монолитов в этой области. Люди появились в этих местах после последнего ледникового периода 10 тысяч лет тому назад, а примерно 700 лет назад в этом районе жили люди пуэбло. В 1775-м испанские миссионеры столкнулись здесь с племенами уте и пайют, но только в 1880-х была предпринята первая попытка колонизации мормонской миссией, которая позже покинула этот район.
Native Americans utilized the area for thousands of years. Archaic people, and later ancestral Puebloan, Fremont and Utes searched the arid desert for game animals, wild plant foods and stone for tools and weapons. They also left evidence of their passing on a few pictograph and petroglyph panels. The first white explorers came looking for wealth in the form of minerals. Ranchers found wealth in the grasses for their cattle and sheep. John Wesley Wolfe, a disabled Civil War veteran, and his son, Fred, settled here in the late 1800s. A weathered log cabin, root cellar and a corral remain as evidence of the primitive ranch they operated for more than 20 years. A visit to Wolfe Ranch is a walk into the past. Paleo-Indians lived in the lush canyons leading to the Green and Colorado rivers from about 10,000 to 7,800 BC and might have been the earliest people to see Arches. Although there is no evidence of Paleo-Indian use in the park, their spear points and camps have been found nearby. By 9,000 years ago, the climate here became too warm and dry for many large mammals. They and some of their Paleo-Indian hunters moved to higher habitats. Those who stayed in the canyon country depended more on gathering and traveling. This lifestyle, called Archaic, meant that the people had to live in small groups and travel extensively. Archaeologists have found a few spear points, occasional campsites, and quarries for stone needed to make tools. Barrier Canyon style rock art panels, once attributed to the more recent Fremont culture, are the best evidence of the Archaic hunter-gathers in Arches. By A.D.1, Archaic culture gave way to prehistoric agriculturists called Ancestral Puebloans, previously know as Anasazi and Fremont. Arches National Park was a frontier between these people. To the south, the Park preserves some of the spectacular villages of the Ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep and Navajo. To the north at Dinosaur National Monument and to the west at Capital Reef National Park, Fremont archaelogical sites dominate.
Russian version
«Арки» / Arches N.P.
Sensational! Tens of thousands of unknown geoglyphs have been found in the Sahara.
