Arches 2012 Day 2.2: The Park! pt. 2 The North End.

 

For Day 1 and part 1 of day 2: The south end of the park click here.

Day 2.2 North of the Delicate Arch turn out.

Salt Valley Overlook:

We passed this on the way up, but hit it on the way back down.

Kind of a cool look out.

Fiery Furnace is mostly a lookout. You can get a permit to hike, or join a ranger, but otherwise there is a hefty fine going out on your own. For good reason, it is a pretty complex labyrinth and getting hopelessly lost is a real possibility. It looks rather fascinating though, and if I ever return I might sign up for a ranger led tour.

If look look closely you can just make out the ranger led group coming out of the slot canyon towards center right. (look for a white spot). That’s how big the area is.

a quick panoramic.

View from the other end.

From the DBP Album. Is it just me, or is that rock flipping me off?

Our next stop brought us to the Sand Dune Arch and Broken Arch Trail head

.

Broken Arch from the trail head. We opted to hike towards Sand Dune Arch with a short trail of .3 miles out and back.

You hike through a small slot canyon.

Which lets you out into a small sandy oasis.

A possible future arch?

A much smaller arch, with lots quite a few people.

 

Holy crap! I didn’t think I got a single shot of the arch without people in it. Very crowded little arch.

Footprint through the slots

A little side canyon we found.

We didn’t do the 1.3 mile trail to Broken Arch, but I kind of wish we had. I did pull out the telephoto lens though to get a better view of it.

While I had the telephoto lens on a crow flew by.

Skyline Arch

Again we passed it on the way up, but hit it on the way down. Not a bad little trail at only .4 miles round trip. Also, this is the only one where I only ran into a handful of people.

You probably cant read it, but basically in 1940 a giant slab fell out which doubled the size of the arch. This would explain why it has a rougher edge than most.

With the rock slide below.

We then hit the Devils Garden Trailhead. There are tons of things to do here, all within a full 7 ish mile loop trail. We didn’t do the full thing but I will cover the parts that we did.

Unknown formation with a small arch.

Tree

Pine Tree Arch

These little guys (not sure what they are called) have the most melodic bird calls I have ever heard.

Tunnel Arch.

Both Pine and Tunnel Arches can be reached and return to the trail head in less than a mile. I don’t have the detailed map in front of me, but it wasn’t too bad to get to them. We continued on a little further.

I really liked these purple flowers and wanted a closer shot, but they were off trail, and I respect the requests of the rangers. The soil here has special, delicate plants that are the life source of the desert here. Stepping on them can kill years and years of growth.

Landscape Arch.

Back to Landscape Arch. This is the longest of the arches in the park. In 1991 large slabs fell from the arch scaring off hikers resting underneath it, and prompting reports of thunder, which prompted officials to close the trail up and under it. Good call. I fear this arch may not make it much longer. Here’s to hoping it holds out a few more years.

There were a few chipmunks playing in the area. This one is my favorite.

What I assume is Partition Arch. I messed up my knee at some point and it was really not happy so we turned back at this point. 1.6 miles round trip, add Pine and Tunnel arch and I would say you can round this to about 2 total miles.

I cant decide if they built the fence around the tree, or if the tree grew through the fence.

I waited patiently for the crow to take flight.

I had hoped to get a better shot than this, but I’ll take what I get.

The other side of Tunnel Arch.

The last stop on our trip were the 2 lookouts for Delicate Arch. I really wanted to do the actual hike up to it which is only 3 miles, and had initially planned on doing it the next day. Unfortunately my knee was not a happy camper and barely allowed me to complete the .5 mile (roundtrip) trail to the upper view point. I am still kicking myself for not actually hiking to Delicate Arch, but I am glad I limped through to this though. Rather cool.

View of the valley below.

I knew I was going to be further from the arch than I wanted to be so I put the telephoto lens in.

 

Ok. I probably cant really say anything not having done the hike up to it, but from this vantage point, that looks steep, with a drop off at the bottom. I don’t know if I would be comfortable at that arch. It is the most unique arch in the park though and I am a little mad I didn’t make it to it.

A person underneath to show scale. Funny, before I snapped this shot he was running down to the arch. I was worried he was going to start tumbling.

I looked desperately around for some plant life to help give me some interesting depth. I found a barren tree, but I am still rather pleased with the results.

Delicate arch was the ONLY hike I had planned on doing, and unfortunately I did not make it. I also missed doing the full loop at Devils Garden, Garden Of Eden, Cove of Caves, Broken Arch, and one that is not on the map, but we found later, Courthouse Wash. Obviously a return trip is in order. It was an excellent trip and each hike offered excellent scenery. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it!

Terrible iPhone pic of the Super Full Moon. We seem to have this weird tendency to camp during extremely bright full moons. o.O see my Lake Washington post here.

This post too became a little longer than anticipated so stay tuned for day 3: Dead Horse Point and the Trip home.