A Canyon Hike

Not all arches are within the boundaries of the Arches National Park.  Today we drove to BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and did a 5 hour hike up Negro Bill Canyon to see Morning Glory Arch.

The arch is at the very end of the canyon and is not visible until you have trekked through about a dozen stream fording's. The trail follows a course through many canyons before reaching the headwaters of the stream which begins right under Morning Glory Arch.

In many places the canyon narrowed and we were walking under the shear cliff walls following the course of the stream. The stream had large pools and many small falls and rapids along the path.  One of the best features of the hike was the constant sound of running water.

In many places the trail was wide enough for us to walk side by side.  But the majority of trail was single file and some was narrow enough that you had to turn sideways to pass through tight sections.  There were times we were walking across sandstone that slanted down to shear drop offs.  We walked carefully and paid attention to the more dangerous parts.

A nice sandy section of trail.

Terri in front of one of hundreds of caves cut into the sandstone.

 Finally Terri could wait no longer and climbed up the canyon wall to claim her 3 room cave condo.

There were 3 rooms in this cave.  Terri made herself right at home.  That's her walking stick leaning at the mouth of the entrance.  I had her move out to the edge so she could be seen in the photo.

Each corner we turned in the trail provided another amazing view up a different canyon branching off the main canyon.

Every once in a while the trail would climb out of the stream bed and we would get a panoramic view of what was ahead.

After two and a half hours of great hiking we reached the end of the canyon.  The walls of the canyon extended hundreds of feet above us on three sides.  There was no way to go but straight up.  This was the location of Morning Glory Arch.

Now the problem with being at the end of a canyon and having a 234 foot arch is that there was no way to get the whole arch in a single frame of a photo.  Here I was standing directly under the arch shooting straight up.

Only a portion of the whole arch.

Looking into the end of the canyon at a portion of Morning Glory Arch.

One end of the arch connecting to the canyon wall.

So where does a stream begin?  As we walked along the stream today I asked myself that question many times.  As we approached the very end of the canyon I got my answer.  Flowing out of the solid rock under the arch was a stream that was only a few inches wide.  There was a crack about 3  inches wide and the water flowed down that crack to begin the stream.

A stream begins out of solid rock.  WOW!

What goes up must come down.  We began our 2 hour decent after a nice lunch sitting under the arch.  We sat at the edge of the pool of water that flowed from the rock and soaked in the wonderful place we were in.

Our view up and out of the canyon from our sitting rock during lunch.

The lighting and views changed as we walked out with the sun setting.

Reds, browns and even blues in the sandstone.



And finally a photo of me.  If you look close you can see that I am using oxygen.  I have had some lingering problems since my August hospital stay with the lung infection.  When we were in Yellowstone at the beginning of September my oxygen levels dropped to the point that we had to make a trip into Cody, Wyoming to get set-up for oxygen tanks.  Since that time I have been improving slowly.  My hope is that I will be off oxygen before Mexico in November.

One of the many stream crossings.  The walking sticks really helped both of us with our balance as we used the stepping stones to cross the stream.  The walking sticks also help with all the other challenges involved with old people walking in uneven terrain.

Life is good and a little oxygen problem isn't slowing us down much.