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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. 








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  1. UnknownMay 10, 2015 at 10:14 AM

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

    ReplyDelete

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