Zion National Park’s Seldom Noticed Natural Arches

Very few people know of them or have seen them. And Kolob Arch just may be the biggest arch in the world.

Below is Crawford Arch, AKA Bridge Mountain Arch. Named for an early settler, William Crawford, who received credit for noticing it first. Millions of people drive near it but don’t notice it. It is high up on the Zion Canyon walls. I didn’t take the first photo below. I wasn’t around then.

Crawford Arch overlooking Human History Museum Photo by Chad Utterback If you want to get to this spot, you need to negotiate a difficult 8 mile round trip hike requiring technical climbing.

I took this photo from the safe canyon floor below.

Below is Kolob Arch, which requires a 14 mile round trip jaunt to get to this spot. At approximately 287 feet wide, it is the world’s second largest arch behind Arches National Park’s Landscape Arch at 290 feet. But Landscape Arch is getting old and could collapse at anytime which would give Kolob the title.  It doesn’t look like Kolob Arch is collapsing anytime soon.