"At the open end of a huge culvert" for reals
Colorado River view
This book that we've got was written in 1996. Some things - like walking through the huge culvert to start - have not changed since then. Other things have. The book gives vague directions to our destination - Jeep Arch - by going up the Culvert Canyon wash. Since then, a trail has been signed and cairned for this hike, following the sandstone terraces up looker's-left. We opted to follow the trail up and then perhaps come back down via the wash; the canyon splits several times and we figured it would be easier to navigate on the way out.
Heading towards those sandstone features
As we made our way up the rock terraces, taking care to avoid cryptobiotic soils, dry potholes and lichens, we had the whole canyon to ourselves. It was completely quiet, save for a few bird calls, and the views were staggering. After walking for a while, a sign indicated a loop option, one heading up and one heading down. We bore left, on the high side, going clockwise on the loop. We climbed a couple of levels, scrambling a bit to get up between two looming sandstone features, then continued up a shallow wash.
Wide open, dizzying views
Jeep Arch is so named because it is a jeep-shaped cut-out in a massive stone fin. It's quite big although the stone wall it is in is narrower than I expected, eventually flaring out down canyon. The loop trail scrambles up one side so you can stand in the arch, and then continues down the other side. We paused for a few minutes at the arch. Again, all to ourselves. Again, staggering views.
Sort of jeep-ish
We completed the rest of the loop and then, back at the sign, H noticed a definite trail coming out of the wash below us. We figured that this was the old way up and, as such, could be our way down. We carefully made our way down the drainage, with some route-finding whenever we reached an "impassable pouroff" (per our book). There was a surprising amount of water still in some deep pools and we guessed that some of these grottoes were pretty popular with locals on hot summer days.
H in Jeep Arch
As we got closer to the mouth of the canyon, we met a few other people. We also started seeing more birds, including one falcon who seemed indignant at our passing by. We came back out through the culvert, getting back to the car around 11:30 a.m., just in time for lunch which consisted of beers and hike snacks.
Scrambling up to the arch
After re-organizing for MTBing and a quick trip down to the end of the road, we headed back towards town and up to the MOAB Brand trails for some MTBing. We were there later than we usually are so the light seemed very different. Luckily, we had cool temperatures (in the 50s, light breezes, bright sun - not even any clouds over the LaSals) and sparsely-populated trails. We did our usual loop (Rusty Spur/Bar M loop) twice, then hung out in the parking lots for a bit for beers while H cleaned up the bike chains. As we were getting ready to go, a family with a couple of little kids rode up to their car beside us. One little boy exclaimed, "Whew - I did great!" H asked him if he hit any big jumps. The kid very seriously replied, "Oh no, I don't do that," and then launched into a full discussion of how they drove all the way from Colorado, while his mom rolled her eyes and we both grinned.
Jeep Arch is pretty big
After that, we returned to the motel, gave Frank the office dog some belly-rubs and were told that whenever we were ready for a new dog of our own, she [Katie, who owns the place and rescues dogs] could hook us up. Keeping that in mind for the future, we got cleaned up, had a beer at Woody's and then devoured a veggie pizza at Zax to wrap up our day.
The way we came up
Hike stats: 4.36 miles; 1,000 feet of elevation; 2:36 hours total time; 1:58 hours moving, 2.0 avg. m.p.h.
The way we went down
Bike stats: 18.95 miles; 1:36 hours; 11.8 avg. m.p.h.; 20.9 m.p.h. top speed (H, of course)
How could you not smile with a sky like that?
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