four arch canyon

Last weekend down in Moab was picture-perfect winter desert (in my mind, anyway): clear, sunny and not too cold.  It never got above the low 40s but when the wind didn't blow, the sun felt great.  Saturday morning we decided to explore somewhere new to us: Four Arch Canyon.

Beautiful morning

We drove out Route 313 and turned left onto the Gemini Bridges Road.  There were a handful of MTBers there, pulling their bikes off the shuttle and getting ready to ride the innumerable trails.  The road was in good shape - hard and dry - unlike the first time we had thought to try this hike a month or so ago, when it was snow/ice-covered with sticky mud patches.  We drove in just under five miles, parking at the signed turn-off for Four Arch Canyon and Crips Hole.  4WD vehicles could continue in further but we didn't want to risk the little Subaru, plus it didn't add much mileage to the roundtrip.

What lurks under the rocks

We walked in along the road, Milton wide-ranging as usual but striking out on finding any critters to chase: it was still too chilly for lizards and while there must have been rabbits around, they had made themselves scarce.  We did see plenty of range cattle sign - footprints and poop - but no actual cows.

In the wash

We were using the post linked in the first paragraph as our trail guide but it was a little confusing at one fork in the road, so we got off track a little bit, having to walk through the closed (or abandoned) Desert Dream ranch (dude ranch?) before getting back onto the canyon road by a Boy Scout camp.  From there we just followed the 4x4 road into the canyon.  This is an easy out-and-back hike with plenty of solitude and stunning scenery.

Shadow Arch

The sun climbed above the towering red cliff walls as we made our way to the head of the canyon.  There are four arches in this canyon (as you may have guessed): Bullwhip Arch and Mosquito Arch, easily found on the north side of the canyon/hiker's right on the way in, Shadow Arch high up on the south side and Crips Arch, which we never found.  We didn't see Shadow Arch until we were on our way back out; after we located it, we noticed that someone had actually built a small cairn on the side of the jeep road as a marker.

Mosquito Arch

The canyon ends in a good-sized bowl with an impressive pour-off.  On our way out, we walked along the wash for a bit, just for something different.  When we were almost out of the canyon proper, we met a Sprinter van and an SUV, turning around before getting stuck in the sand; as we passed by the scout camp, four more vehicles (jeeps and pick-up trucks) were heading in.  That's not a lot of traffic per se but we were glad to have had the scenery all to ourselves.

Bullwhip Arch

 Later, back at home, we realized that Crips Hole is located in a whole other canyon, likely the one you turn into when you cross a wide wash before the turn-off to the scout camp.  Now we're going to have to go back and check that out too.  With an area that pretty, that's not a tough sell.

Hike stats:  6.78 miles; moving 2:25 hours/2.8 m.p.h.; overall 2:50/2.4; 840 feet of elevation