Return to Arches

Another Trip to Oregon, Part III

As many times as I’d been to Arches National Park (see here, and here, there were two spots I wanted to see again that I hadn’t gotten to. Both are at the far north end of the park and one of them requires four wheel drive (4WD). My then-Little Guy and I had been there decades earlier, at the end of an epic dinosaur trip —

which we took in my Suzuki Sidekick that I was driving at that time. We’d visited Sand Dune Arch, where I got a nice shot but not professional quality, and attempted to go to Tower Arch, but that 4WD road was too much for the Sidekick and I wisely turned around before we got ourselves in trouble.

Now I had a nice, lifted Jeep with oversized tires and locking axles. I wanted to re-shoot Sand Dune Arch and conquer that 4WD trail to Tower Arch.

But first, Pookie had gotten very interested in a hole in the ground right outside the motorhome door:

Pookie, watching a hole

“Huh?” I thought. “I wonder if there’s something down that hole?” and just then, a head appeared. It took one look at the cat, and went back down the hole!

Pookie went nuts! Stuck her arm down the hole as far as it would go, but of course the critter, which I think was an antelope squirrel, was gone and never came back. She watched that hole the entire rest of our time at that camp.

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The trail to Sand Dune arch goes in between a bunch of fins near the far end of the Park:

Entrada sandstone fins at Arches National Park

And the arch is in there, made from one of the fins:

Sand Dune Arch, Arches National Park

It was cloudy, which was fine. I wanted the soft shadows and muted tones of a hidden place in between the rocks. It’s a spot of special beauty.

The road to the Tower Arch 4WD trail was nearby. I went there, locked the Jeep into rock-crawling mode and headed up. The trail goes over the top of a hill and then goes down. On the way down is a feature named Marching Men:

The Marching Men of Arches National Park.

There is a certain point along the trail where you can see light through the gaps between these rock columns, and they really do look like a bunch of men marching up that hill. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over at that spot, and the place was full of other Jeepers coming through. So I never got a shot. But here are a few stragglers at the end of the line:

Marching Men at the end of the line

The 4WD trail continues to a spot where you park, and then scramble another quarter mile or so over rocks to see the tower and its arch:

Tower Arch in Arches National Park.

It’s a bit mundane for an arch. The real thrill of the place is getting there… and getting out in one piece — which didn’t happen. A big rock in that gnarly 4WD trail tore out one of the electric steps on my Jeep, and it ended up being wrapped around the rear axle. I limped back to camp and removed it the next day, which is when I discovered that my Jeep did not have a jack (I had to remove a rear tire to get the mangled step off of the axle)! I would have to pick up a jack on my way through Salt Lake City in a few days.

Ah, well. Adventure!

to be continued…