May 1 – Devil’s Garden

I would guess that everyone is sick of seeing arches by now but here we go one more time. This was our last trip into Arches National Park because this was the only trail we had not yet done.

The Devil’s Garden Trail is about 12 km long and visits a lot of arches. We started at 11 am and it took us about 5 1/2 hours. Part of the trail is well maintained because everyone wants to see the largest arch, Landscape Arch. The path out to Double O arch has you climbing on a lot of rocks. The “primitive loop” that we took coming back is just that.

Off we go. The main part of the trail was quite busy.

The first arch called Tunnel Arch was kind of underwhelming. You couldn’t get close and its only redeeming feature was that it was very deep.

 

Next was Pine Tree Arch because it frames a tree, except we never got a good picture of the framing.

It looked  nicer from the far side.

On towards Landscape Arch.

The Arch is over my head in the picture below. You can also see Partition Arch in the upper right corner.

It is the longest natural arch in the world at around 290 feet wide.

You can’t get any closer because there have been sections falling off in the last few years. It is getting very thin and its days are definitely numbered.

To continue on you have to climb up this narrow fin.

I climbed out on another fin at the top.

And got a closer picture of Partition Arch.

The side trail to Partition Arch loops around behind.

From this side it just looks like two arches with a wide pillar between but from the other side you can the pillar as a narrow partition.

The view out from where I was standing. You can see the trail in the bottom right corner.

Another side trails took us to Navajo Arch. The trail was more interesting than the arch. Another spooky wall.

Lots of ghostly faces.

I commented that a lot of kids must climb in this alcove.

We sat in the shade under this deep arch and had lunch. It was interesting how the tree seemed to follow the curve of the arch.

To continue to Double O Arch we had to climb a lot of rock.

And then walk across the top of this very narrow fin. It was tough for Jennie because it was a long way down.

The pictures don’t do it justice.

There was a lookout to another arch far off in the distance.

You first see the Double O arch(es) from atop another fin that you must walk down.

Some people managed to get on top.

I climbed through the hole for a view from the other side.

Jennie came up and joined me and we had a nice rest stop.

Then I got restless and tried to see how those people had gotten to the top. I scrambled up the hill and then had to climb this. It was tougher than it looks.

From there it was a flat walk out to the arch. I didn’t actually go out on the arch because you will see in later pictures the last drop to actually be out on the arch was very steep and not worth the danger. (I’m getting old).

Here is a picture of a girl slowly working her way down to the top. Again it was much steeper than it looks especially when you are up that high and looking down.

I got a good view of the start of the Tower Arch Trail that we did many days ago.

Heading back down.

We started the Primitive Loop back.

 

We worried that we were going to have to go through the fins ahead of us. Instead the trail went around the end. Longer but easier.

 

We followed a wash for a while.

And then came back out in the open until we rejoined the main trail again.

The main trail was very busy.

And back to the parking lot at 4:30.

We were tired but not completely wiped out.

We decided to take it easy and have dinner out. We had some great BBQ at a place called the Blu Pig.