Bradley and I spent yesterday 4-wheeling and hiking on Sand Bench, between Dutch Flat Road and Red Wash. This was only a couple of miles south of where I spent some time last weekend, but since we were on the south side of the San Rafael River this time, it involved a significantly longer drive. We started off riding along a faint trail through the sand that crosses South Red Wash and ends at an overlook of the Red Ledges (one that I’d ridden last year). We stopped to hike in and around South Red Wash, and ate lunch nearby. Then we went farther down the trail and stopped again near the end and hiked to some interesting looking Curtis Formation rocks about a mile away. I’d seen a photo of an arch taken in this general area, but I didn’t know exactly where it was. I wasn’t specifically looking for the arch, but I was definitely keeping an eye out for it. We reached the rocks and found a cool little cave-like tunnel, then hiked around some more and just happened to find that arch! I was pretty excited to see it.
After seeing everything there was to see in that area, we slogged through the sand back to the ATV and rode back toward the truck, and stopped again to hike down a wash just south of Red Point Reservoir. This area was closer to the road and a little more interesting to hike in. Bradley even found a palm leaf fossilized in a rock that he took home. We spent less time in that area, but I think we both had more fun because it involved less hiking across the sand flats. I didn’t want to leave that area so soon, but time was short and we needed to get moving in order to get home by dinner time. We rode pretty quickly back toward the truck, except for a brief stretch of road where I let Bradley drive, and I also stopped to take photos of some wild donkeys that we’d seen on our way through earlier in the day. I had some cold drinks and a snack waiting for us at the truck, which turned out to be just what we needed after a long day of playing in the sand and on the rocks.