Devils Garden (Arches National Park)

[9] Ringhoffer contacted officials at the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to determine whether the land could become a tourist attraction.

[2] The trail through the Devils Garden, including the primitive loop section and spurs, has a total length of 7.2 mi (11.6 km).

The fins were created when vertical cracks in a thick layer of sandstone were eroded and widened by water—either scoured by runoff from rainfall and snow melt, or pried and exfoliated by ice expansion.

The events that led to the arches, fins, and other rock shapes began about 300 million years ago, when seas periodically covered the area.

Overlying horizontal rock layers bulged upward and cracked vertically allowing rainwater to trickle down and dissolve the salt away.

Rain and snow soaked into the vertical cracks, which dissolved the cementing minerals and loosened grains of sand to be carried away by running water.

Weak zones in fins were either dissolved by naturally occurring acids in rainwater or wedged apart by freezing and thawing water, and openings developed into the various arches seen presently.

[15] Mammals inhabiting the park include cougars, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, red foxes, cottontail rabbits, kangaroo rats and other rodents.