Road to the Gossips - Arches National Park, Utah

The Three Gossips, Arches National Park, Utah

Many of the rock formations in the southwest have unique names that have stuck around for years. I think it is sort of like the old game of looking at clouds and guessing what each one looks like. Everyone sees something different but, since the clouds are transitory, they are only temporary imaginary figures. Not so with a 350-foot tall rock formation found in Arches National Park known as the Three Gossips (pictured in the upper middle of this photo). I have seen similar formations in other parts of the southwest that are named the Three Sisters (Monument Valley) and the Priest and the Nuns (Castle Valley). I often wonder how many names each of these sandstone formations were given before the ones we now know them as became permanent. One of life's little mysteries that probably no one thinks about except me.