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 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park.  A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view.  Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...
1 comment
Read more

Day 35 - Escalante River

Our group of eight intrepid but novice backpackers and two incredibly experienced guides gathered for breakfast at 8am to meet, greet and bulk up for 5 days in the Escalante River area. We laid out all our gear to ensure we had the needed hiking, camping and survival supplies and drove to our trailhead for departure.  We hiked along a trail following the course of the Escalante River for a mile or so before getting to our first of many river crossings. Wet feet were not something we could avoid so we simply hiked across and sometimes down the river. When the river ran close to the canyon walls we knew we would have to find a shallow entry to the river, then cross the river to the bench on the other side.  Guides Andrew Skurka and Alan Dixon offered instruction along the way on map reading and route finding and information on local vegetation and geology and how the knowledge of both helped make your off trail travel more efficient. For example in geology their were two main ro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site.  Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint.  And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...
1 comment
Read more