hellroaring rim trail

Sunday: time for a hike with Milton!  We loaded up and left before 8 a.m., driving north of town and out a ways on 313 to the Jewel Tibbetts Arch trailhead.  It's gotten a nice sign and designated parking lot by the highway since we first did it back in 2015, so it was much easier to find.  (If you cross the cattle guard, you've gone too far.)  We had a plan to make a loop out of it: park by 313 and walk in to the arch and then continue on 4x4 trails not quite as far as Horsethief Campground, taking an access road out and returning along 313. 

Boys on the canyon rim

As we walked in the dirt road, Milton was in his element, bounding through the sagebrush.  He managed to flush out a jackrabbit but lost it when the rabbit went through a fence but he ran into the fence.  Lucky rabbit.  And lucky us because we didn't want him to catch it.

Cairn marks the spot

Even walking the road in, the loop to the arch viewpoint is not long.  It's easy walking, through sandy sagebrush fields and over rocky ledges.  The arch is cool but difficult to see: it's on a fin but the fin is in front of the far canyon wall, so the arch blends into the scenery.  Hellroaring Canyon is pretty dramatic; I'd love to find a way down into it.

Jewel Tibbetts Arch

From there, we continued southwest-ish along the Hellroaring Rim ("HRR") 4x4 trail.  This double-track climbs slightly past the head of Hellroaring Canyon, up to Horsethief.  It was getting warmer, so we had put Milton's white t-shirt on him (at this point, it was somewhat less than white) and stopped every half hour to give him water. 

Hellroaring Canyon

Somewhere along the way, there was a dirt road turn-off, leading back out to 313, that would have cut a couple of miles off our total.  But we missed it and we surprised to find ourselves at the Horsethief MTB area.  We checked out the trail map, noted a possibility for later in the week, and hied ourselves back to the truck on the shoulder of 313.  If we had taken the turn-off, we still would have had a mile to go back on the highway; since we missed it, we doubled it. 

Everyone gets apres

Milton was wiped out when we finished, both from romping around the desert off-leash as well as towing H - on-leash - for the two miles back to the truck.  We then drove down to the Navajo Rocks parking lot for lunch and beers.  It was hot so we didn't linger too long, however.  It is possible that there was napping back home later (not much later) that afternoon.

Hike stats:  8.87 miles; moving time 2:43 / speed 3.3 m.p.h.; overall 3:17 / 2.7 m.p.h; 860' of climbing