Arch Canyon & Comb Ridge

[IntrepidXJ]

Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 24, 2008

Since Amanda has to work on the holiday this year, we only had a normal weekend to go exploring, but I managed to make the most of it. After work we left and drove straight through to Blanding, where we filled up the Jeep with gas. From there we made it to Comb Wash and managed to setup camp right before it started raining. We knew there might be a chance of rain, but it actually ended up raining all night....and pretty hard, too.

After getting some sleep (not a good night's sleep, though) we got up early and headed over to the Arch Canyon trailhead where we met up with Jared and his friend Kyle. As we drove up the trail, we were greeted with a couple of pretty deep water crossings, thanks to all the rain we got during the night.






We stopped at the Arch Canyon Ruin for a few pictures before continuing on.





After crossing the creek a number of times and stopping for more pictures, we finally made it to the end of the trail.









At this point, we took off down the hiking trail to check out Cathedral Arch and Angel Arch.

Cathedral Arch



Angel Arch



When we got back to our vehicles, it was time for lunch. While we were enjoying lunch, it actually started hailing for a little bit.

[IntrepidXJ]

After heading back out of Arch Canyon, we headed South down Comb Wash along Comb Ridge.





It was a lot of high speed driving, so we didn't get many pictures. But we did end up stopping at this old cabin along the way.





Once we hit US 163 we climbed through the ridge and did some exploring right on the other side around Hobbs Wash. We found an old section of highway that we followed, and a small arch.

The old highway we followed



It dead ended here



Wagon tracks in the slickrock right past where the old highway ended



The little arch that Amanda spotted



We climbed up to the arch



We tried to find a way across the Butler Wash canyon, but all the roads down were too washed out, and the bridge for the old section of highway was missing....so we had to get back on US 163 to get to the Butler Wash Road.....which we took north again until we made it to the Butler Wash Ruin Overlook. We followed the short hiking trail to check out the ruins.





After heading into Blanding for dinner and fuel, we went back to camp and went right to sleep. I had a much better night of sleep....but it did rain again at some point during the night.