Texas Flat
The trailhead for Texas Flat was practically right across the road from Seven Towers, so it was easy to find. We stopped to check out the trailhead sign and then we were on our way. Lots of people were parked to enjoy the hiking trail, and we worked our way through the cars. After we passed them, we had the trail to ourselves.
We saw tracks in the dirt in front of us, but the vehicle they belonged to had already left. You could tell that they took the curves at some speed, kicking up the wet sand. It looked like fun and we wanted to join them in their fun, but visibility wasn't good enough for it. Still, the trail was easy and we made good time.
There was a short section where we had to climb a little hill on a narrow shelf road. The trail was dry, but you could see that the dirt had clay mixed in. That would make that hill climb pretty dangerous if it was wet. We were happy it had dried in the sun.
The trail on the way to the overlook was uneventful, working its way through trees. There wasn't much scenery compared to what we'd seen since we got to the Blanding area, but we were pretty spoiled by the Valley Of The Gods and other areas.
The overlook spur was a little more challenging, but nothing too serious. It was short, with lots of room to park. We walked a short distance and were surprised to find a set of steel steps with railings that made it easy to get down to a lower slab of slickrock. The handwriting in the cement said it was put there by Boy Scouts in the 90s. Cool!
The other cool part is that we had seen a picture of someone on those stairs the day before in the Blanding Visitor's Center. It was marked with the caption "This Could Be You!" or something similar.
The view of Arch Canyon was incredibly beautiful. We could see the trail in the canyon, and we intended to be there in a short time. Little did we know that the trail was too washed out to drive, but we'd find that out later.
We enjoyed the scenery for a bit and then we headed on to finish the trail. After the overlook spur, the trail wasn't maintained. There were big cracks from water erosion all over the place, making the trail a mess. We went through it, only to find the trail ended in the trees. There wasn't even a turnaround spot. It was pretty small, but luckily there were only our two vehicles.
We got turned around and headed back. It was so hard to resist the urge to drive fast, but we were strong. It wasn't long before we were back at the pavement and backtracking a bit to Comb Ridge.
