pocket arch (attempt #3)

We thought we had it this time.  We really thought we'd found Pocket Arch.  It is not entirely undocumented: it is on the circa 1991 map we have of Sand Flats Recreation Area; it is in one of the funky little F.A. Barnes hiking books; H found two mentions of it (and only two) online, each with a set of coordinates.

So Sunday morning, he put the destination coordinates into our GPS.  We drove up to the Sand Flats and parked in the Slickrock parking lot, crossed the road, climbed up onto the slickrock fins and started following the GPS.

Hey, look - it's Low Arch (again)

We pretty much made a beeline out to the cliffs over Millcreek Canyon, keeping to the slickrock fins and, when we had to cross sandy areas, washes where we could walk where the water had/would run.  Before too long, the canyon was in sight and I thought I recognized where we were: "Oh!  It's Low Arch!"  We were surprised, because when we found Low Arch the first time, we had then been unable to locate Pocket Arch, despite our references saying that she'd stopped at Low Arch en route to Pocket. 

We kept at it, following the GPS right up to the edge of the cliff.  We stared in the direction it indicated, where - supposedly - .14 miles straight ahead Pocket Arch was located.  Nothing.  We could see nothing.  Nothing in front of us, nothing at the bottom of the canyon, nothing across the canyon in the cliff wall facing us.  I guess maybe the arch could have been snug up against the cliff wall under us, and we just couldn't see it, but, nope.  Nothing.

Curses! Foiled again!  But now it's personal: we will find Pocket Arch this year.  Now we're obsessed.

Buddy the Elf at the Slickrock parking lot

Hike stats:  4.8 miles; 2:18 total time and 2.1 m.p.h. overall; around 1,800 feet of elevation