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Eye of the Whale 121019

October 19, 2012 by Monica

Eye of the Whale

Trail Run on October 19, 2012
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader
View trail information for Eye of the Whale

Bill S.
Khaki 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
Ben P.
Green 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
Roger R.
White 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
Monica I.
Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

We just finished Cache Valley and Walt's Jeep sounded like it had birds stuck in it somewhere. He decided to head into town to get the issue fixed, so he left us for the rest of the day. The rest of us turned on Willow Flats Road and easily found the trailhead for Eye of the Whale. It looked like it was going to be a mellow ride.

The southern part of the trail doesn't have as much scenery as the northern part, but it was still a nice, sandy trip through the desert. We could see we were getting closer to Herdina Park. It didn't take much time at all for us to get to the Eye of the Whale Arch parking area, which was well marked and easy to find.

We parked and got out, and most of us hiked to the arch. We had a discussion about which rock was the "whale" so the arch would be its "eye" but we couldn't really picture it. The arch looked like it made the tail and not the eye. It turns out you can't really see the "eye" unless you go through the arch and look at it from the other side. The hike was short and uneventful, and we started to head back.

As we walked back we saw a huge group of 4x4 vehicles coming from the other direction. They boxed our vehicles in, and they saw us walking back. When we got there, we had to ask them to give us a way out of the parking area, which was a bit of an ordeal. We finally escaped, though, and headed northwest.

The scenery got better as we got farther in. The sandy area was deep and fun but we'd seen deeper sand in the area in other places. There were some fun stretches of sand, especially when it worked its way through a wash. There was some deep shade in there, and it would be a nice way to escape the heat.

The last bit was fairly straight, and we soon found our way to the Tower Arch trail. We turned left here to go see the arch. Eye of the Whale was a good find, and a trail we'd use again.

balanced
bumps
cooler_temperatures
curve
deep_sand
dirt_and_sand
early_bumps
eye_of_the_whale
fun_section
herdina_park
hike_to_the_arch
jeeps_parked
la_sal_mountains_part_1
la_sal_mountains_part_2
layers
little_hill
long_trail
marching_men
mellow
northern_end
old_timey_sign
parking_area_sign
red_dirt
rock_formation
rock_hole
rocks_in_sand
roger_to_the_arch
sandy_climb
shady
sign_at_the_north_end
slickrock
spires
through_the_wash
trail_ahead
trail_with_a_view
trailhead_sign
up_some_slickrock
warning_sign
whale
willow_springs_road_sign
willow_springs_road
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