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| Hiking | 12.54 Miles |
2,180 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.54 Miles | | | |
| 2,180 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Started the day at Devil's Garden Primitive Loop. The primitive loop is probably the only place on the park's established trails where you'll encounter the least amount of people. I did the loop counter clockwise. Once you're about 2 miles into the loop the fun really starts as the trail fades and you begin climbing up, down, and around giant sandstone rocks through a series of washes. The trail has an ample amount of cairns, but there were still a few times I found myself questioning if I was going the right way, or having to back track to the last cairn to look for the next one.
I met a group of 3 girls from Florida near Double-O Arch who had backpacked/camped and it piqued my interest in possibly spending a night back there sometime. I hiked with them the rest of the way back and enjoyed the company. My favorite part of this trail is just after Double-O Arch where you climb up on top of a ~4ft-wide giant "rock fin" which you then walk across for about 100 yards. From here you get outstanding views of the park!
Next I hit up Broken Arch Loop. There are a few arches which are neat along this loop, but other than that it is rather uneventful.
Lastly, I hit up the one place I knew for certain was going to have swarms of people, Delicate Arch. The hike to the Arch was actually a little more difficult than I had anticipated. It's by no means "strenuous" but it definitely fits into the moderate category.
Once I reached the Arch I encountered about 50 other people. I really wanted to get a picture of the Arch without any people in it, so I preceded to wait about 30 minutes while everybody and their sister just had to stand right under the arch to get a picture of themselves in various annoying poses. I saw handstands, flexing, "sexy poses", and "hands raised up like we just don't care!" Some people even chose to loiter around RIGHT NEXT to the Arch even though they were't getting their picture taken. I noticed I was't the only one who was becoming increasingly frustrated with the feces (crap) show, and I nearly gave up. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
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Route Editor
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