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. 








Comments

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

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days 89 and 90 - Waterton

I started my journey north to Canada today. My plan was to head to Waterton Lakes, just north of Glacier, then to Calgary, then the Canadian Rockies parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Glacier and a few others, then to Vancouver and finally to Seattle, all over the next several weeks. But first I needed the Internet!  I drove south out of Many Glacier to a place I remembered having cell reception.  I did some emailing and calling back home, did some research for my Canada trip and watched the final three episodes of Game of Thrones--wow, the final two episodes were sensational. This rainy, dreary day was perfect for such activities. I then drove into Canada late in the evening and to a campground set in the cloudy mountains at Waterton.  The weather cleared a bit the next day and I was able to do some hiking around this scenic alpine lakes district.  Waterton Lakes district from a high hill called Bear's Hump: The chipmunks at Bear's Bump were very interested in the conten...

Day 106 - Seattle

My July 4th started with a drive from Vancover to Seattle, arriving at the Museum of Flight by 11. The museum tour began with a display of the 27 U.S. Flags, made interesting by announcing the history of the states entry into the union.  This B-17 is similar to the bomber my grandfather flew in WW2. A former Air Force One plane that Kennedy road on was another highlight.  I stayed all day at the museum enjoying the history of aviation exhibits and finally space! I drove into downtown Seattle to checkout the city parks reserved for fireworks watching. These neighborhoods were crawling with people and would make horrible stealth street camping sites. I called several hostels and all were full... but then I found one with one bed left. I reserved the spot and drove to the hostel to find it in walking distance to the fireworks. I joined a group waking down to see the fireworks. We were joined by a few others.  Two skydivers with fire flaming behind their path were followed by...

Day 93 - Calgary to Banff

After a very pleasant morning at Dave's house spent photocopying trail and scramble guide routes, enjoying a great breakfast and coffee, meeting some of Dave's extremely kind family members and chatting more about adventures, I set out for downtown Calgary.  I thought a walk around a museum would be a nice change of pace, so I toured the Glenbow Museum. Two highlights were a Blackfoot Indian describing the meaning of their Tipi decorations and the Gun Scupture. The history of Alberta section was also quite interesting: fur trappers then cowboys then railroad builders then oil drillers.  I then walked down to a nearby waterfront park, along a pedestrian only shopping street where a Christian pride rally was taking place, and then down quiet side streets to the park. Seeing people out jogging and playing on this Sunday afternoon reminded me of the real life I must one day return to. But not yet! Hungry and ready for mountains, I walked back to my van and left Calgary heading wes...