It was another beautiful spring day in Utah so time for another arch hunting trip to the Moab area of Utah. David and I drove down that morning and were soon on the Little Canyon/Gemini Bridges road that begins between Moab and the Canyonlands National Park access highway. The road up the sandstone shelves seems treacherous at times but is passable to any high clearance vehicle.
Once into Little Canyon, our first stop was to view Little Canyon Arch, a class ‘C’ natural arch located almost under the road that climbs out of Little Canyon and continues on to Gemini Bridges. It is fairly obvious on the west (right) side of the dirt road before it leaves Little Canyon.
We then continued on the Gemini Bridges Road as it leaves Little Canyon and heads west. A half a mile later we turned off to the left and headed south on the Bull Canyon Road. We bypassed both Bull Canyons so we could drive to the top of a short side canyon off of Day Canyon. Here we could visit Bullday Bridge, a large class ‘B’ size natural bridge hanging over Day Canyon.
Our next stop was in Four Arch Canyon which is part of the Crips Hole area located almost a mile west of Gemini Bridges. A rough jeep trail leaves the Gemini Bridges road and heads southwest, dropping into Crips Hole. The road then continues to the southwest and into Four Arch Canyon.
The first arch we stopped at was Mosquito Arch, a uniquely shaped class ‘C’ sized natural arch that does somewhat resemble a mosquito proboscis.
From here you have a fair view of Bullwhip Arch back to the northeast, also on the west cliff face. I suppose this could be considered a class ‘C’ sized arch.
On the opposite cliff face is where Shadow Arch is hiding. It is rather difficult to make out since the view is only from the end of the arch and not the opening directly. This is another class ‘C’ sized arch.
A short distance further up the canyon, on the same side of the canyon, is Crips Arch. This is a smaller class ‘D’ sized arch.
We drove back down Four Arch Canyon and across Crips Hole. Just before climbing out of Crips Hole, we stopped long enough to explore a small side canyon heading west from Crips Hole. Here we found a small class ‘D’ arch called Boomerang Arch.
Further up this short canyon we found Holly Twins Bridge, a class ‘D’ double bridge.
Our next stop was in Short Canyon, a hanging canyon located between Day Canyon, Long Canyon and the Colorado River Gorge. To get there required leaving the dirt roads of the Gemini Bridges area and join the Island-in-the-sky highway to the west. This allowed us to swing south and then east on the Deadhorse State Park road and end up on a dirt road above and to the north of Long Canyon. After several miles of rough jeep trail, we stopped and hiked southeast for .4 mile to the rim of Short Canyon where we found Trestle Arch, another class ‘D’ sized arch. (Trust me… it really is an arch.)
Nearby is Terrace Arch, a class ‘C’ triple arch.
A short distance to the south, on the rim of the main Short Canyon, was Trigon Arch. This was another class ‘D’ size arch.
And that was enough arch hunting for one day!