Skip to main content

Day 45 - Arches Pt 2

A dozen named arches in one day.  You could say I had a full day planned. First stop was Devil's Garden, a 7.5 mile trail by many of the more famous arches in the park. Pine Tree Arch, then Tunnel Arch, then the masterfully thin and long Landscape Arch, then my favorite Partition Arch then Navajo Arch, then the primitive trail (aka following rock piles and scrambling over ridges, trying to avoid getting lost) to Double O arch, then Private Arch then back. Whew. That was tough to write let alone hike. But it was such a fun hike. 

A sixty foot rock section fell from under Landscape Arch in the 80s so you can't walk under it. I believe it's the longest arch in the world. Cool. Pic. Partition Arch is fairly basic but the special part is the rocky narrow ridge you climb up to get to it and the incredible vista revealed once you walk through the arch onto a sloping high platform. Jump shot with an angel pic!  Double O has just that, two circular arches, one giant and one small.  I added a third O cleverly. 




The trail section after Double O was very primitive but filed with big views of the "Devil's Garden", rows of narrow spire ridges. This sandy trail ended up tearing up my toes as the sand was so fine it came in my shoes and rubbed. I made it back to the car a bit hobbled. 


After a quick hike to Skyline Arch, there were only a few sections of this small park left un-visited, so despite hurting feet, I pushed on to Tower Arch. This one was far away right miles down a nicely-leveled dirt road to the Klondike Bluffs area. A 3.4 mile round trip hike to a remote landscape with a "spectacular" arch was impossible to resist. The arch was so spectacular that I took an afternoon nap for thirty minutes under its shade. Birds zipped lightning-fast under the arch joyfully while a small plane circled overhead-- human and birds in sequence almost. Panorama from under Tower Arch. 


I was wiped and hurting after this trek, but with only three more arches to go Sand Dune Arch, Broken Arch and Tapestry Arch, I pushed to the finish for two miles more. Fifteen miles in total, in sand.  I ate a huge pasta meal and ice cream for desert as my reward then crashed. 








Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 10, 2015 at 10:14 AM

    Fantastic. I'm really enjoying reading about your adventures.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 168 - JMT Pinchot Pass

The mountains appeared like sand dunes in the soft early light.  We drank our coffee, packed up our gear and set off up the hill toward Pinchot Pass. Not a mile up the trail, we encountered another sensational High Sierra lake, Lake Marjorie, and the peaceful reflections off the lake's surface.  Mountains of white and red and grey and black surrounded us-- all surfaces seemingly from another planet, but welcoming us this morning on Earth. Jeff and Steve and a lady named Tara joined us at the picturesque summit of Pinchot Pass.  We remained there for a complete hour, enjoying stories of hiking triumph and Jeff's difficult but rewarding experiences as a search and rescue captain. Reluctant to leave the 12,000 foot pass, but begged forward by the slowly descending trail, we hiked on.  The wonderful landscape in the background, with layers of blues, and browns and whites, appeared like an Ansel Adams masterpiece, and the trail a magical doorway to its frame. The sce
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 171 - JMT Guitar Lake

Wow, was it cold this morning. After waking up and eating breakfast, we packed up quickly and found this scenic sunspot to warm our bones. We had a short eight mile hike to Guitar Lake today,  the last viable campsite before the five mile hike to the 14,505 foot-high Mount Whitney summit.  We stopped at this lovely meadow and looked for bears. We only saw deer but were able to enjoy the incredible peace of the far mountain range. Steady hiker traffic, the most of the entire trip, including one group of twelve elder hikers, passed us as we rested, and jumped! Views of Mount Whitney finally came into view at Timberline Lake, a quaint lake where camping was unfortunately forbidden. We passed a group of twenty Taiwanese hikers.  The summit of Mount Whitney looked heavily defended when viewed from below. We were going to wake up tomorrow at 230am and hike up to the summit for sunrise-on-the-top-of-the-world*. The thought of this dark task was a bit foreboding.  We made it to Guitar Lake by
1 comment
Read more

Day 150 - Big Sur Hearst Castle

Big Sur coastline continues in its beauty.  Elephant seals practice sparring. They make a snore-like belly belch sound while sparring and then after ten seconds later lie back down to snooze on the sand.  The Hearst Castle is an incredibly luxurious complex on top of a high hill overlooking the ocean and coastal mountains. The feel was Mediterranean, royal and magical.  The outdoor pool had a Roman feel-- on a hill, in California. Strangely awesome.  But the indoor pool was the tops-- like a Turkish kings dream moment come to life.  I found a beautiful campground close to the castle and stopped for the night. 
Post a Comment
Read more