Four Arches Canyon
We'd been coming out to the Gemini Bridges area for many years but no one had ventured into Four Arches Canyon. It was time to change that. After lunch we easily found the trailhead and started down the new trail.
We saw a sign for the Magnificent 7 bike trail and it looked like an awesome trail. We saw some bikes that were tackling it but their trail only crossed ours. It's a nice addition to the area.
We found the Entrada Boy Scout Camp at the "Y" in the road and we decided to check out the arches first. We took the rightmost fork and headed in. We were just before a sandy corner when a dirt bike came flying around it. We didn't run into each other, thankfully. The driver told us an ATV was coming up and we crept along, but we still surprised them when they came up on us. We were guessing that there are a few collisions out here.
Having the GPS coordinates for the arches was very handy. We had pictures of all of the arches thanks to UtahArches.com but we still got confused early. We found a fifth arch right at the beginning and it messed us up. Half of us didn't see Mosquito Arch until we were on the way back. Some arches were easier to spot from the other side.
We found the last two arches easily enough. Then the trail got narrow and it seemed like it was going to either suddenly end or suddenly turn into an ATV trail. We stopped while the trail was still wide enough to turn around and then Roger and Terry went ahead a little way to see how it ended. It was definitely narrow, but there was room enough to turn around at the end. There wasn't anything else to see so we turned around when they got back.
When we got back to the "Y" we took the other half. It was definitely much less traveled, a nice trail through the sand to get to the other canyon. The other canyon was narrow and scenic but it ended quickly at a small turn around. We all found a place to turn around and headed back.
It was nice to find arches so close to a trail out in that area. The area is full of arches but most are more difficult to find. This was a great addition to the area's trails for us.
