Not wanting to miss out on the beautiful fall weather-and needing to avoid strenuous hikes while Allison recovers from her open-heart surgery-we decided on a three-day trip to the Escalante area. We originally planned to visit
Collet Arch Ruin, but heavy rainstorms made the 70-mile round-trip dirt road impassable. We knew there was a possibility the road would be closed, so the night before we made a backup plan to explore local attractions near Escalante that included an arch, a bridge, and a pictograph. While disappointed we didn't make it to Collet Arch Ruin, we none-the-less enjoyed an afternoon of easy hikes!
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First up was Cedar Wash Arch . . .
The trail we followed, from the parking area, seemed to be heading in the wrong direction
(We later figured out this trail provides access to the bottom of the wash) |
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| Not really wanting to go down into the wash we stayed on the rim and made our way towards the arch |
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| It was a short walk across the rim's slickrock to reach this nice arch |
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Of course you need photos from the other side!
(Doesn't that window look photo-shopped? The more you stare at it, the more it seems like an optical illusion!) |
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Just down the Cedar Wash road (about 1.5 miles) is the parking area for Covered Wagon Bridge
(We were surprised that it wasn't actually in Cedar Wash, but a completely different drainage) |
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| Not knowing where we were actually going, we started out on a social trail that lead to this large undercut |
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| As you can see it was pretty cool! |
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| Looking back at where we entered the undercut |
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| We figured the bridge must just be down the wash so we continued on downstream |
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As we made our way towards the bridge, we came to this unique stained wall . . .
At first glance, we almost expected it to be a pictograph, but on closer examination it was clearly natural staining |
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Less than a minute downstream of the undercut we came to Covered Wagon Bridge . . .
We were pleasantly surprised with such a nice bridge in such a small wash! |
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Allison loves those iron concretion circles that we often find in the sandstone . . .
The underside of the bridge had many of them spanning the entire arch |
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| Who doesn't want a picture of themself standing on top of a natural bridge? |
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| For our final afternoon trek, we headed for the Circle of Friends pictoglyph |
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These human like figures holding hands (or dancing) in a circle are extremely rare . . .
The only other one comparable to this design is found in California |
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| There were more traditional paintings surrounding the pattern |
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Kent using his hand as a scale for the Circle of Friends
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If you're interested in visiting
Cedar Wash Arch,
Covered Wagon Bridge, or
Circle of Friends, click on the above links and they will take you to Road Trip Ryan's website. As always, a special "shoutout" to Ryan and his website . . . he always "comes through" with great ideas for hikes of all skills for just about any part of southern Utah.
