In the heart of Arches National Park, where the desert sun carves shadows into the rust-hued earth, the Three Gossips stand as silent sentinels of time, their towering forms whispering tales of ancient landscapes. These monolithic sandstone figures rise abruptly from the parched valley floor, their silhouettes evoking the image of three figures huddled in eternal conversation, their voices lost to the wind. Bathed in the golden glow of dawn or the fiery hues of sunset, their surfaces shimmer with a palette of ochre, crimson, and amber, as if the very spirit of the desert has been sculpted into their forms. The play of light and shadow accentuates their rugged contours, giving them an almost lifelike presence—stoic yet animated, as though caught mid-gossip, frozen in a moment of conspiratorial exchange.
Each spire, distinct yet unified, bears the marks of eons: smooth, wind-polished faces juxtaposed with jagged edges where the elements have gnawed away at their resolve. The tallest of the trio stretches skyward, its pinnacle sharp against the boundless blue, while its companions lean slightly, their forms softened by the relentless caress of wind and rare desert rains. Together, they form a natural cathedral, a place where the silence of the desert feels sacred, interrupted only by the occasional cry of a raven or the rustle of tumbleweeds skittering across the sands.
Geology and Formation of the Three Gossips
The Three Gossips are a testament to the geologic artistry of the Colorado Plateau, sculpted from the Entrada Sandstone, a formation laid down approximately 165 million years ago during the Jurassic period. This sandstone, born from ancient desert dunes and intermittent shallow seas, is composed primarily of fine-grained quartz cemented by calcium carbonate and iron oxides, which lend the rock its vibrant red and orange tones. The monument’s creation is a story of deposition, uplift, and erosion—a slow dance of geologic forces spanning millions of years.
Initially, the Entrada Sandstone was deposited as vast dune fields in an arid environment, with grains of sand carried by wind and cemented over time into solid rock. Tectonic forces associated with the uplift of the Colorado Plateau, beginning around 70 million years ago, elevated these sedimentary layers, exposing them to the elements. Erosion, driven by wind, water, and temperature fluctuations, became the master sculptor. The Three Gossips owe their distinct forms to differential erosion, where softer, less resistant layers of sandstone were worn away faster than the more durable sections, leaving behind the towering spires we see today.
The monument’s location within Arches National Park, near the Courthouse Towers, places it in a landscape shaped by faulting and salt tectonics. Beneath the surface, a thick layer of Paradox Formation salt, deposited 300 million years ago, shifted and dissolved, causing the overlying rock to fracture and collapse. These fractures allowed water to seep in, further eroding the sandstone into isolated towers and fins. The Three Gossips, standing as erosional remnants, are part of this dynamic process, their shapes continually refined by the desert’s unrelenting forces.
Today, the Three Gossips remain a striking example of nature’s ability to craft beauty from endurance, their forms a fleeting moment in the geologic saga of Arches National Park, destined to evolve as the desert continues its patient work of creation and destruction.
The Three Gossips in the movies
The Three Gossips, a distinctive rock formation in Arches National Park’s Courthouse Towers area, has appeared in a few films, leveraging its striking silhouette for cinematic backdrops. Based on available information, here is a list of movies that feature or were filmed in the vicinity of the Three Gossips:
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): The opening sequence, set in 1912, features young Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) in Arches National Park. The Three Gossips is visible from the main park road during scenes where the scout troop rides through the desert, near the Courthouse Towers and The Organ.
- Thelma & Louise (1991): Several scenes were filmed in and around Arches National Park, including the Courthouse Towers area where the Three Gossips is located. A notable scene involves the protagonists locking a state trooper in his car’s trunk, with the Three Gossips and surrounding formations as a backdrop.
