Short trip through Four Arches Canyon

[IntrepidXJ]

Date: October 12, 2008

Sunday was our final day in Moab and I'm not going to lie, I was getting pretty exhausted after exploring and wheeling the last eight days plus staying up later than normal around the campfire with my friends. Still, I didn't want to head home on Sunday without exploring a new trail, even if it didn't take very long. After checking out from our motel, Amanda and I headed out to check out Four Arches Canyon.

Four Arches Canyon is a short trail that takes off from the Gemini Bridges Road about a mile west past the Gemini Bridges. While the intersection is signed and points towards the canyon and Crips Hole, it does not appear to be very well travelled. We followed the trail for about 2.5 miles until we reached a section that was too washed out to continue, but at that point we were almost at the end of the canyon anyways. While the lighting made it difficult to get pictures of the two arches located on the east side of the canyon, we were able to find all four of them.

Trail in Four Arches Canyon

Bullwhip Arch

Mosquito Arch

Shadow Arch

Crips Arch (hard to see in the picture)

Sandy wash bottom

After spending a few hours exploring the canyon we headed for the highway and made our way home. It was a great nine days in Moab

Full gallery can be found here:

Four Arches Canyon

 

[devinsixtyseven]

Aha! Another person who saw that road and said "let's go see what's down there!"

How far back did you go? We turned at the top of what looked like a long, loose hill down and across the canyon bottom, where it appeared the trail climbed to the other side and ended where the powerline went up the wall. Wasn't sure if there was more trail back there, or not.

-Sean

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Aha! Another person who saw that road and said "let's go see what's down there!"

How far back did you go? We turned at the top of what looked like a long, loose hill down and across the canyon bottom, where it appeared the trail climbed to the other side and ended where the powerline went up the wall. Wasn't sure if there was more trail back there, or not.

-Sean

Actually, I saw it in an old guidebook for the Moab area and on a map before I saw the sign.

The trail ends where the final poles for the powerlines are located before they go up and out of the canyon. We actually got stopped a little bit before then because of a washed out area, and hiked the last section of the trail.

 

[TheGillz]

Sounds and looks awesome. What were temps like for your trip?