Arches National Park: The Hike to Dark Angel

Monday arrived bright and cold! Another morning in the low 40's. Bob and I donned our hiking gear and jackets and set out for the trail to Dark Angel. The first part of the trail is popular with tourists and the parking area fills quickly every day. We wanted to get ahead of the crowd and we managed to do just that. The hike would be a little over 6 miles round trip.

Our first stop was Landscape Arch. It is a little over a mile from the trailhead and most tourists make it this far, but not much farther as the trail becomes more difficult. Of course, we got credit for a geocache by taking a picture at the arch.
The next part of the trail involved walking up slickrock. To get on the slickrock there is a huge step. I made it up, and I knew that to get back down on the return trip that I would sit and slide to get off the rock!

 

 We arrived at the junction for Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, but decided to see those two after we hiked to Dark Angel which is about .4 of a mile beyond Double O Arch.

 Of course there was another section of slickrock which just happened to be the top of a fin! After making it to the top of the fin, I decided if I went down, I would go to my left as that drop was only about 30 feet and the drop to my right was about 5 times that distance!

 Once over the fin, it was a short hike to Double O Arch. And yes, we got a geocache for hiking to Double O. The area below the arch also had that deep red sand that is like walking in deep beach sand.

 This is a picture of the back of Double O Arch as we headed to Dark Angel.

 Dark Angel is a tall, dark spire at the end of Devil's Garden. It is also the end of the trail. We stopped for a rest and a snack before we headed back to see the arches we skipped on hike to Dark Angel.

 We made it back to the junction and yes, I did the slide down the slickrock in all the appropriate places.

 The first arch on the return trip was Partition Arch. It gave a great panoramic view of the valley below.

Navajo Arch was the last arch on our trail. It seemed much thicker that the other arches we have seen.

Just before you get to Navajo there is a wall with many holes that have eroded. It amazes us how round the holes are and how they are all in one section of the wall. We stopped for pictures on the way back.

We enjoyed the hike, but were curious about the primitive trail that loops north of the trail we took to Double O Arch. Hmmmm, maybe it will be our next hike.