Today we set out on a hike on the Devil's Garden Trail. It wasn't going to be too long, about 7.2 miles, we've done way longer. We started out in the parking lot, and headed out! It's still pretty cold here, so we layered up, and expected to see some cool rain.
This is a loop trail that takes you around a bunch of different named arches and points of interest. First up was Tunnel Arch. A thick arch with a pretty small opening...it will be around for thousands of years yet!
Further along is Pine Tree Arch. The people whom we asked to take our picture didn't really understand the SCOPE we were looking for, but it's a good one of us that's not a selfie!!
Then the famed landscape arch, which is a whopping 290 feet wide! They don't let you go right up to it anymore, I guess they haven't since 1991 when a huge 60 foot slab thundered right off of it. So it's hard to see the sheer size of it in pictures.
We continued on the trail, with Jon venturing out onto ledges and sheer cliffs.
Then leaning to look over them!
Jon found the tiniest of arches, and joked that this should be the picture we posted on social media about being in Arches National Park, and how we thought it would be a little more impressive than this!
These arches are really so fascinating. These are Partition Arch, which is actually two arches. It's incredible how water and weather can wear away UNDER a rock enough that something like this forms.
Along the trail to Partition Arch there was a little shrub that has been shored up with rocks so it can continue to grow. Something about it was so vulnerable Jon just had to get a picture with it!
Navajo arch is pretty cool. I wonder where they get the names for the arches, and who gets to name them??
If I'm remembering correctly, Jon assumes the fetal position in National Parks often...I think he did it last fall in Capital Reef, too! But really, what else is one to do when there is a little tiny crevasse to curl up in?
We continued on the trail out to Double O Arch, which required us to climb up on one of the slender rock buttes above this valley and walk along it in the pretty strong wind to the end of it, where the trail continued along the actual ground. The wind really picked up while we walked along this section, and we saw the first of some raindrops.
This gives some idea of the wall we were walking along. Plenty wide to walk, but still up really high.
There's the Devil's Garden behind us.
We made it successfully to Double O Arch, which is where we could either turn back and return the way we came, or continue on the loop that was termed a "primitive trail" with only cairns and a rough sense of direction marked.
Of course we continued on the primitive loop trail, because we wanted to go see the Dark Angel. As we ventured out on that side trail, the rain picked up and changed to snow. We weren't too concerned, as the ground was still just wet, and we weren't yet. It really looked pretty foreboding, with its dark stone in the dreary snowy distance. It's the formation on its own in the center of the picture.
The snow kept picking up, and we were still just laughing and thinking this was a great time!
We made it out to the Dark Angel.
By then, snow was sticking on the ground, if not all the rocks, and we were starting to get a little bit wet.
We followed back to the primitive trail, and kept moving.
By now our hoods are up, and we are kind of trudging. Jon was good at finding the cairns that marked the way, and he was fairly familiar with the general direction of the trail as he had been looking at the downloaded map on his phone.
There were some parts that were pretty treacherous. Wet stone is slick stone, and all I could think about was keeping my hands warm in their cold gloves while trying to avoid breaking my leg like I did all those years ago on wet rock in St. George!!
Then, long story short, Jon's phone died. Completely shut down and wouldn't turn on again. His phone isn't the most reliable, and it often shuts down with little provocation, let alone cold snowy weather. I admit I was a little worried. This trail was INDEED primitive, and the tiny little cairns, when I even saw them, were hard to notice, and not very clear as to direction. Jon was I think a little worried, too, but trying to keep a brave face for me.
We slid around, knowing really only the general direction of the marked trail, while the snow continued to fall. By now we were both pretty uncomfortable with wet shoes and feet, continuing snow, and for me, fear we would be lost in the storm.
I continued a prayer in my heart the whole time, and trusted Jon's judgment, and we slowly descended down into less snow and a more obvious idea about where we should be headed!
It was definitely the most eventful hike I've been on, and I'm glad it turned out how it did! I really did not want to be lost in a snowstorm!! We were cold and wet coming off the trail, and headed back to our hotel to warm up and eat some hot food!
No comments:
Post a Comment