Small Home – Big Yard

Landscape Arch

It’s Saturday and our big excursion today will be into Devil’s Garden.  Just beyond the campground is the parking area and trailhead for the 4.2 mile moderately aggressive hike that takes you past Landscape Arch and continuing to Double O Arch, with intermediate stops at 5 other arches.  From Double O you can choose a longer return route (by about 2 miles) or double back on the same path to the parking lot.  It takes us about 2 hours to reach Double O Arch after stopping for photos at Landscape Arch, Partition Arch and Navajo Arch.  Landscape has one of the widest spans in the park and in 1991 suffered a collapse of about half of the underside of the arch.  Now even more delicate and fragile the arch is off limits for close-up observation or climbing.  Navajo Arch is uniquely positioned on the sandy desert floor rather then up high on a rock fin.  Partition is actually two arches, side by side high up on narrow rock partition.  Double O is very unique, with two arches stacked one on top of the other.  You can hike up to and into (and in the case of Double O, across the top arch) of each of these except Landscape.  The hiking beyond Landscape is challenging in areas with about half the trail being in soft sand and the other half being along rocky elevated outcroppings.  Some of the best views of the park are just before Double O with a passage along a long narrow rock fin that offers 360 degree views of the park.