“What a field-day for the heat” – Buffalo Springfield
Today I discovered my favorite part of Arches NP, the hike to Tower Arch. We hadn’t planned on hiking there at all, but I’m really glad we did. Last night Ranger Mike suggested we climb/hike a route used by repelers with views over the southern parts of the park. We gave it a try, but decided that we weren’t up for the scrambling that was required. Luckily as we were coming back down (we did climb about 200 feet) we met another ranger who told us about some other options.
One of the places he mentioned is in a corner of the map that we had never explored since it requires traveling on a dirt road across the Salt Canyon for 10 miles or so. Simce we had plenty of time for exploring today we gave it a go. We only made one wrong turn on the way in taking a mile or so detour down the 4×4 Jeep trail. Fred handled it like a champ and after getting back on the main dirt road we found the correct turnoff about 100 yards further on.
As we drove in we had a unique perspective of the Devil’s Garden and Dark Angel spire. We could also see how the fins that the park is known for fit into the bigger geological picture of the area. The trail started with a pretty steep scramble up a cliffside and then was a long slow descent through the area. The biggest hiking challenge came at the end of the trek in as we hiked up a steep area covered in deep sand – an exhausting combination.
The view of Tower Arch was well worth the hike in. We took a few minutes to relax in its shade before climbing through and above it to a series of fins. We took our time scrambling around the passages and enjoying the views to the west of the park. The hike back was hot, put went quickly. One of the perks of being so far north in the park was that it seemed to make sense to continue on the same path to the little used North Arches entrance. I’d heard before that it existed, but had though it was inaccessible to all but the most hardy vehicles. However, the ranger we met on our first climb assured us that Fred would be fine. The only issue we had were two completely unmarked intersections. We must have guessed correctly at both since we eventually made it back to the highway.
Now we’re in Fruita, CO writing, relaxing, and getting ready for tonight’s rodeo. GO HORSES!
