Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah Postcard

Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, taken June 1998. Delicate Arch is a 65-foot (20 m) tall freestanding natural arch located in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. It is the most widely-recognized landmark in Arches National Park and is depicted on Utah license plates and on a postage stamp commemorating Utah's centennial anniversary of statehood in 1996. The Olympic torch relay for the 2002 Winter Olympics passed through the arch. Because of its distinctive shape, the arch was known as "the Chaps" and "the Schoolmarm's Bloomers" by local cowboys. It was given its current name by Frank Beckwith, leader of the Arches National Monument Scientific Expedition, who explored the area in the winter of 1933–1934. (The story that the names of Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch were inadvertently exchanged due to a signage mixup by the National Park Service is false.) Delicate Arch is formed of Entrada Sandstone.[4] The original sandstone fin was gradually worn away by weathering and erosion, leaving the arch. Other arches in the park were formed the same way but due to placement and less dramatic shape are not as famous. (Source: Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicate_arch)