My national parks pass expired shortly after my last trip to Arches and I didn’t really have any desire to visit again during the busier months (even though I basically never see people during my hikes there), but finally this week I had the urge to get back out into the Arches backcountry. And it’s really nice that beginning just last month you can now buy a digital annual pass, so I didn’t have to go to the local BLM office, or order online and wait weeks for a physical pass to arrive. This hike began in roughly the same area as that last one but I hiked in a different direction this time. The amount of historic trash was very surprising. On the last trip I saw a single tobacco tin and no other relics, but this time there were cans and bottles scattered everywhere, as well as a lot of lithic scatter. For about the first 3.5 miles I hiked to many sandstone formations looking for any overhangs or alcoves. I found what I think is a metate, but the pecking is so covered in patina that it must be quite old. One rocky and brushy gap between sandstone domes had a high concentration of chert flakes, but later on I looked in two very promising alcoves and surprisingly found absolutely nothing to indicate any human presence.
Three Gossips and the full moon
Setting off into the backcountry
Sunshine on the rocks
Broken bottle
Tobacco tin
Old metal can
A familiar rock pinnacle in the distance
Above the head of a canyon
Maybe a broken metate?
Brushy gap between sandstone knolls
Worked chert
Sandstone domes
Pair of alcoves
Seep in an alcove
View out of the alcove
View into a canyon
Next I checked out a brush corral that I’d spotted in the satellite imagery. Nearby I saw a single translucent chert flake but zero other lithics. On the cliff inside the corral was a 1929 inscription by Delbert Taylor, whose name I’d also seen in Salt Wash, as well as a faint cursive inscription from 1924 that I couldn’t make out.
Translucent flake
Angled layers
One of many axe-cut trees
Brush corral
Dell Taylor, January 16, 1929
Collapsed wooden chute between corral sections
Other end of the corral
The corral was the furthest extent I went before turning around and making my way back to the truck, taking a different route and looking at other rock formations and cliffs on the way. Next to a big juniper tree I found a camp out in the open, with cans and glass all around. I picked up one piece of metal to see what it was and realized it was part of a half-buried shovel. A mano and a few chert flakes indicated this spot had been used as a camp hundreds of years ago as well.
Out in some open country
Ancient and historic camp
Large can and board
Tobacco tin
Piece of metal
It’s a shovel!
Small purple glass jar
Mano
Continuing along I found a nice shed deer antler that I wish I could have kept. Nearby was an old stash of stacked firewood, some pieces broken and others axe-cut, and under the wood were several empty beer cans. Most were Coors but one I could see was a Fisher beer can, and I didn’t disturb them so who knows what else was buried in the dirt under there. After stopping to eat my lunch I found a modern Keystone Light can, which might have blown all the way there but that would surprise me, as the nearest park road is over a mile away. I suppose it would be just as plausible that somebody hiked out there while drinking beer. I encountered an area that had recently burned and some trees had been cut down. According to the historical imagery in Google Earth it happened sometime after April 2023. Carved on a nearby cliff were the initials C.T. and D.F., which looked quite old, as well as a nice horse carving.
Sandstone dome
Shed deer antler
Cloud street, or convective rolls
Firewood pile
Empty beer cans stashed in the firewood pile
Chert flakes
Seeping overhang
Distant rock formations
Much newer beer can
Burned trees
Old camp spot
C.T. and D.F.
Carving of a male horse
In the last couple miles of the hike there wasn’t anything super interesting to see. A big sandstone cove had what appeared to be the remains of a brush fence but it wasn’t very substantial and was probably only used temporarily as a corral. I did see what is probably a legitimate petroglyph, but it was on a wall close to the trailhead that had other modern scratchings on it, so who knows? It would be unusual for graffiti to be pecked in like that. I got back to the truck at 3:00 PM and had covered only about 9.5 miles. I was wishing I’d have planned another shorter hike or two elsewhere in the park to make full use of the available daylight. During the drive out I stopped several times and trained my binoculars on the cliffs along the Great Wall and southwest of Park Avenue hoping to spot something worth hiking to but didn’t see anything that grabbed my attention, so I left the park and got home a little earlier than expected.
La Sal Mountains
Big walls
Large cove
Probable remains of a brush fence in the cove
Round boulder
Some sort of equipment
One last cliff to check out
Maybe a legit petroglyph?
Constructed trail and a natural arch
Photo Gallery: Arches Backcountry IX