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Published: February 10th 2009
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The Arch Canyon Trail is an 16 mile round trip to two large arches in the Cedar Mesa area of southeast Utah, west of Blanding and just west of Comb Ridge. This is on the way towards Natural Bridges National Monument is southeast Utah. The trail head is 2.5 miles north of Utah Route 95 along a dirt road. The dirt road is just after passing through the engineered notch in the massive sandstone of Comb Ridge. The trail is mostly an ATV trail so the walking is fairly easy. There are many creek crossings but in fall there is not much water to step through. The trail is sandy and meandering much of the way.
Within the first ten minutes of hiking there is the fairly large Arch Canyon Ruins site that has several wall sections still standing and many collapsed rubble pile structures, and several examples of petroglyphs on the sandstone canyon walls.
The Arch Canyon Ruins appears to be a combination pueblo and alcove site with some wall sections abutting against a sandstone cliff and collapsed rubble piles in front.
It looks like there are three or four structures still partly standing and these draw
the most interest. The site is on the north side of the canyon and gets full sun most of the day. It is somewhat elevated above the creek that would have provided a year round water supply.
The third structure along the canyon wall seems to have the most details left, showing some entryways and examples of the stonework still in place.
The numerous rubble piles make it appear that this was a sizeable village but there isn't much in the rubble to see for the untrained eye. I didn't see any interpretive information on this site, such as number of rooms or kivas.
Between the structures on the sandstone wall there are several petroglyphs. This is a trail that seems to have it all, ruins, petroglyphs, arches, massive cliffs, carved monuments, and year round water.
Besides the geometric designs there are also a few petroglyphs of animal and humanoid figures. Beyond the ruins site the trail extends as an ATV trail for about eight miles before reaching Cathedral and Angel Arches. Along the way there are opportunities to scan the high cliffs for small Ancestral Pueblo sites.
I saw four that I'm sure were
sites. I saw other possible sites but they were so far up the canyon walls that it was difficult to tell even with binoculars.
Further up the canyon there are more rock fins and monument formations. The canyon forest changes gradually from Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper to Ponderosa Pines with occasional Douglas Firs in shady canyon corners and patches of evergreen manzanita are common.. There is a large alcove that I scanned carefully to see if it was an arch or a ruins site but it didn't appear to be either.
It took me about 4:00 hours to get to Cathedral Arch, with Angel Arch another few minutes further. The land status changes from BLM to Forest Service just as Cathedral Arch comes into view, and the trail changes from jeep trail to footpath.
The trail continues to cross and recross the creek that runs through Arch Canyon. In late October, there was only a small amount of flowing water with pools forming in a few places.
There didn't appear to be an angle to get blue sky through the Cathedral Arch from the trail. It was a long hike to get up this far and
a long way back, so I didn't use up my energy to get up underneath for the blue sky angle.
A few minutes more of hiking, Angel Arch comes into view. At Angel Arch, it was possible to get an angle to see blue sky, but it involves maneuvering through some brush and finding a gap in the tall pines. It looks like there one could climb up higher and get under Angel Arch but it would take more energy than I had. It took me about 4:00 hours of hiking to get to this point and I turned around here.
The trip back took 3:00 hours for a total hike of 7:10 hours for the 16 mile round trip. I carried four liters of water and finished the last drops when I returned to the trail head on a perfect late October day of blue sky and about 65 F. This is a long hike but there is a lot to see.
See more of the Arch Canyon area at http://4cornershikesbridges.blogspot.com Four Corners Hikes-Cedar Mesa
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