Arches National Park Canyoneering Permits

Arches National Park is managed by the National Park Service. These photographs show canyoneering in its red sandstone: a climber on rope descending a tall, streaked wall, and another silhouetted against the daylight while dropping through a narrow slot between smooth, fluted rock. Elsewhere a person in a helmet, carrying a rope bag, walks up a wide sand-floored corridor between vertical red and cream cliffs, and a rappeller works down a rock face above open benched desert that runs out to distant mesas. The rock throughout is bare sandstone, with only sparse shrubs where the canyon bottoms hold sand.