It had been a long and hot summer… too hot for hiking in southern Utah. By the end of October, the temperatures had modulated and the weather was clear. Time to squeeze in some hikes before Winter.
I drove out to Vernal so that my brother David could accompany me. We drove down to Hanksville and rented a motel room with two beds for the night. We still had a good part of the day left so we drove south to an area referred to as Little Egypt. This was just off the west side of Highway 95 approximately 20 miles south of Hanksville.
Little Egypt is a collection of sandstone hoodoos, spires and rock formations that apparently remind people of Egypt.
I suppose the name “Little Egypt” is better than “Spot With Cool Rocks”, which is what I probably would have named it.
The next day, we drove south on Highway 95 again. This time we drove approximately 30 miles to Hog Springs where we parked and hiked up Hog Springs canyon.
We were looking for several smaller natural arches reported up the canyon. We did find a couple of arches that are class D in size.
We know of another larger natural arch in Hogwarts Canyon a short distance to the south but we weren’t ready to climb or hike for that one yet.
Back in the vehicle, we drove south a short distance so we could hike a way up a side canyon on the east side of the highway. In spite of the thick cottonwood trees, we were able to get a good view of Tornado Arch high on the north cliffs.
By then, we were tired enough to just be content driving the paved roads and taking a few pictures before heading back to Vernal.
