Easter Week Hiking in Moab Area - Day 3 In Arches

[pigburner]

Tuesday, April 15 Arches and Tunnels

We spent the morning off the beaten path, finding solitude in the hike up Courthouse Wash to The Tunnel and Ring Arch. The only people we saw all morning were a couple rangers with backpack sprayers getting ready to hike down the wash to work on eradicating some non-native grass thought to have hitch-hiked to Arches on the boots of a climber from Zion. This is an easy hike, following an initially well-defined trail up the wash, with expansive views of the sandstone walls and pillars in the area. After reaching the turn to the Tunnel, the trail continues up a narrower wash between sand/sandstone walls. After a while the trail climbs out of the wash and up onto an expanse of slickrock; if you reach the bottom of a dryfall in the wash, backtrack a little and find the trail out of the wash to the right. Returning to the wash above the dryfall takes you right to the sandstone wall where the tunnel is located.

Start of Courthouse Wash Trail

Slickrock in the Tunnel side canyon

South entrance to the Tunnel


Both ends of The Tunnel require a short scramble up some fairly steep slickrock. The north entrance is a little easier scramble, but the bottom of the slope below you is a 15 or 20' drop into the wash, so the girls were more comfortable with the south entrance. Good shoes were needed to get up to this entrance, as loose sand on the slickrock made it somewhat difficult to climb. I had to use a short rope to help up a daughter whose shoes were not adequate to the task. My oldest again showed her budding climbing skills by finding her way up and into the entrance by herself, then helped the rest of us up. The Tunnel itself is just that - a short tunnel through the sandstone wall, that you climb through, play around in a little, then hop out of. But we really had fun here, not because it is such an awe-inspiring sight where the masses trod, but rather a quiet little adventure, with just enough excitement to keep it fun. A little scrambling, a little climbing, an interesting little tunnel, and quiet views of a relatively little-visited area of the park.

The scramble up to the south entrance to the Tunnel

Inside the tunnel

The girls having fun inside the tunnel


Returning to the main wash we continued along poorly defined trails to the turn-off to Ring Arch. Nothing remarkable about the trail, but it is a pretty arch and worth the visit in combination with The Tunnel.

Approaching Ring Arch after leaving the side wash

Ring Arch

Interesting looking arch in the side of a tower on the way back from Ring Arch


After lunch near Balanced Rock, we headed to the Windows section and pulled off the road to explore the Cove of Caves. Again, we found solitude just a short distance away from the crowds at the end of the road. Making the circuit of the cove on the slickrock rim below the caves brings you behind Double Arch, around underneath the caves in the wall, and to the back of Cove Arch, which is visible but difficult to see as an arch from the road. A fun little diversion.

The Cove of Caves

Backside of Double Arch

Backside of Cove Arch

Ripples exposed in a layer of sandstone


Forgoing solitude, we next made the trek to Delicate Arch, which I was determined to do this trip since I had never gotten around to doing it on my previous trips to Arches. It was a more interesting trail than I had imagined, and definitely worth the trip.

Delicate Arch trail

Arch in the canyon wall behind Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch


After dinner in Moab, I returned to the Windows section with my youngest hoping for some cool sunset views. It seemed there were people with tripods and big fancy cameras on every turnout, and I realized this must be the photographers equivalent of the Salmonfly hatch on the Madison River for fly-fishermen. Sadly, the sun dropped behind a bank of clouds on the western horizon just before setting, which dampened the sunset colors, but I got to hike around to the Windows with my daughter, which was the real purpose of being here anyway.

Delicate Arch from the Garden of Eden viewpoint

Sun through Turret Arch